What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human ringforts misnamed by later legend, and this is one: a broken inner bank, wide fosse, outer bank and eastern causeway on a low ridge beside the nearly vanished Coolcair Lough in County Monaghan. The gap at the west may be a road, a field or forgotten entry, but the earth still draws a room against the flat damp country. People may have lived, hidden or marked territory there before fairy words took the shape; the lough’s retreat and the overgrowth have done more to erase it than any honest answer.

Situated at the NW end of a low NW-SE ridge in a low-lying landscape with the original E edge of the sub-rectangular and now almost dried up Coolcair Lough c. 40m to the W. This is a subcircular overgrown area (dims 29.4m NE-SW; 26m NW-SE; ) defined by an earthen bank (at SE: Wth 3.6m; int. H 1.2m; ext. H 1.4m) which is absent SSW-WNW, separated by a fosse (Wth of top 6-6.8m; Wth of base 1.8-2.4m; ext. D 0.8m at NW to 1.7m at SE) from a complete outer bank (Wth 4.2-4.6m; ext. H 0.3m at SW to 1.2m at NW). The original entrance through the inner (Wth of base 2.1m) and outer (Wth of base 2.6m) banks and the causeway (Wth of top 2.4m; H 0.8m) is at E. The monument 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. Date of revision: 6 December 2017

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