What is recorded here

Half a kilometre of flat green fields holds one D-shaped rise where forgotten hands stacked earth into a ring. The Athboy River still flows beside it, and two causeways cross the ditches like tongues pointing southeast. People may have lived inside, or they may have built the fort to keep something out. Either way, the field remembers the shape of a door.

Situated on a rise in a low-lying fairly level landscape with a canalised NNW-SSE section of the Athboy River immediately to the E and a NW-SE drain just to the SW. It is depicted as a circular embanked enclosure (ext. diam. c. 50m) only on the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map. This is a D-shaped and slightly domed (H 0.7m to NW; 1.8mm to SE) grass-covered area (dims 51m N-S; 46m E-W) defined by the remnants of an earthen bank largely reduced to a scarp that is separated by a fosse (Wth of top 7-8m; Wth of base 1-3.5m; int. D 1-1.5m; ext. D 0.5-1.1m) from an outer bank (Wth of base 4-5m; ext. H 0.5-1.1m). There is a second outer fosse or drain (Wth of top 5-6m; Wth of base 1-3m; ext. D 0.9m) SE-W-NE that connects with the river at either end, and which has an external bank (Wth 5m; ext. H 0.5m) SE-S (max. ext. diam. 81m NW-SE). There is a widened entrance through the inner (Wth of base 6m), and outer (Wth of base 9m) banks at SE with causeways over the inner (Wth of top 4.2m; H 0.45m) and outer (Wth of top 5.2m; H 0.3m) fosses. When inspected in 1969 the monument was divided into four quadrants by relict ditches dug NE-SW and NW-SE. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 27 February 2019 Amended: 23 March 2023

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