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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Lisnadarragh

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Lisnadarragh stands on a NW-SE spur beside a drumlin in County Monaghan. Its earthen banks, fosse and two house-sites remain visible inside a grass-covered circle, while a field bank cuts across the interior. The shape has watched this land since before written memory, and local people still call it a fairy fort because the boundary between human residence and hidden life never fully closed.
Situated on a NW-SE spur on the S side of a drumlin. An earthwork at this location in Lisnadarragh is represented on McCrea’s Map of County Monaghan (1793) and on the 1834 and 1907 editions of the OS 6-inch map. This is a circular grass-covered area (diam. ) that had become overgrown by 2000 (OSAP) defined by an earthen bank separated by a fosse from an outer earthen bank that survives SSW-NW and is incorporated into a field bank SE-SSW. There are traces of a third outer bank SW-NW. The entrance and causeway are at SE. There is a rectangular house-site defined by a low earth and stone bank inside the bank at S, and another one in the NW quadrant with an entrance at SE. The interior is bisected by a NW-SE field bank. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 31 January 2018
A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Lisnadarragh, likely dating to the early medieval period, is situated on a spur south of a drumlin and appears on 18th- and 19th-century maps, indicating long-standing recognition. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy lore, often regarded as dwellings of the "Good People" or places of ancient ritual significance.

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Recorded monument

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