What is recorded here

Fairy fort in Nicholastown, County Louth: an earthen oval, two ditches deep, with a five-metre gap at the east where someone walked in. The ditches have vanished from ordinary sight but still shadow the soil, marking the shape of a life lived there before memory. Perhaps a family kept goats inside, or a hermit prayed at dawn, or children ran the rim until their knees wore smooth. The land kept the outline long after the people stopped repeating it.

Situated in a gently undulating landscape. The cropmark of an oval enclosure (int. dims c. 35m NW-SE; c. 25m NE-SW; ext. diam. c. 50m NW-SE) defined by two fosse features is visible on Google Earth (12/0-7/2013; 29/06/2018). The outer fosse is only visible SW-N-E, and an entrance (Wth c. 5m) is visible through both fosses at E on the 2013 image. The ring-ditch (LH010-022001-), located c. 15m to the E is also visible on the same images. The rath can also be seen faintly on Digital Globe (2013), and it was first reported by Anthony Murphy. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload; 11 November 2019

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