What is recorded here

Fairy forts in Ireland are often called forts because they look like small military defences, but the name also preserves older beliefs about who lived there or what the ground remembered. In Oldcastle, the ring stands on a NE-facing slope inside Portshanmore, the big old bog, where a circular grass area about thirty metres across is still marked by an earth and stone bank and the shadow of an outer ditch. The entrance may still face ESE, pointing toward light, water or traffic rather than danger. A place kept its shape because people kept returning to it, even when they stopped knowing why.

Situated on a NE-facing slope and in a part of Oldcastle townland that is called Portshanmore – the ‘big old bog’. This is a circular grass-covered area (diam. 32m E-W; 30.5m N-S) defined by an earth and stone bank (Wth c. 4-5m; int. int. H c. 0.3-0.6m; ext. H 1.7-2.3m) with some bushes that is incorporated into a field bank N-SE, and the remains of an outer fosse (Wth of top 7m; Wth of base 2m; ext. D 0.4m) SW-N. The original entrance is probably that (Wth of base 1.8m) at ESE. 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: 31 October 2018 Amended: 15 December 2022

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