Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Millockstown — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

That is the largest ringfort in County Louth, a vast scarped platform sixty-two metres across where a thick earthen bank still rises on the southeast edge. People called it a fairy fort, perhaps because its scale defied ordinary understanding or because bones and hidden chambers emerged when ploughs bit into the soil. It is not a small cottage or a temporary camp; it is a massive regional centre where life must have burned brightly before the land swallowed most of its shape.

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 21 June 2012 Sub-circular raised area enclosed by much-degraded earthen bank, well defined on ESE-SE (Wth 9m, H 1.5m) but elsewhere so degraded as to form a scarped platform (int. dims. 62m N-S, 58m E-W, H 3m). Slight traces of fosse at base of scarp from SE-S-W. The scarp has modern drystone facing from SE-S-W, but MacIvor (CLAJ 1952, 253) reports the finding of bones behind the facing on the SW, and also the finding of a 'chimney' beneath a stone, when the ringfort was being ploughed.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.