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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Lisnadarragh

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Half the fort is gone, taken by a quarry between 1995 and 2000, but the remaining earthen bank still circles a grassy patch on the rise between drumlins. Inside stands the ghost of a rectangular house, its stone-and-earth edges marking where someone lived, breathed and perhaps watched the road below. The fairies never came; they were the excuse people gave when they refused to explain why an ordinary home became a mystery. What is left is enough to show the shape of the loss: a room, a gate, a bank, and the hunger of the field that swallowed the rest.
Situated on a slight rise in a col between drumlins to the NW and SE with slightly lower ground to the NE and SW. This was described in 1967 as a subcircular grass and scrub-covered area (dims 25m N-S; 22m NE-SW) with some rock outcrop, which was defined by an earthen bank (Wth 2.2-2.6m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 0.7-1m). There was no visible fosse, but the entrance (Wth of base 1.25m) was at NNW. There was a rectangular house site (int. dims 5m NW-SE; 5m NE-SW) defined by spreads of earth and stone (Wth 1.5m; H 0.7-0.8m) with entrance gaps at SE (Wth 1.6m) and NW (Wth 1.3m) inside the perimeter at NE. There was a circular depression (dims 7.2m N-S; 4.9m E-W; D 0.5m), probably an old quarry, inside the bank at SE. The monument was cut by a NW-SE field band towards the perimeter at SW, and the part NE of this was removed by a quarry between 1995 and 2000 (OSAP). 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: 04 March 2011

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What survives
Recorded monument

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