What is recorded here

Mellifontstown held a thirty-seven-metre earthen ring before machines erased it around 1963. People called it a fairy fort, perhaps because the unusual shape invited more imagination than ordinary sense. It may have been a farmhouse defensible at night, a boundary marker, or a gathering place where humans and story stopped being separate. The field is level now, but the name preserves the shape of what was lost.

In pasture. Raised circular area (38.3m N-S; 37m E-W) defined by low rise (ext. H 0.45m; int. H 1.43m) to W. Fosse (max. D 0.65m) visible SSW->NE. According to local information, levelled c. 1963. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1994). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Mellifontstown is a likely early-medieval defensive or domestic site, indicated by its raised circular area and fosse. Local tradition associates such mounds with fairy dwellings, and the site was reportedly levelled in the mid-20th century.

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