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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Peast

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Half a ring of earth still stands on a northerly shelf in Peast, County Monaghan, large enough to hold a dozen people turning their backs to the wind. The missing half has not vanished so much as surrendered to grass and time, leaving a broken circle that invites imagination rather than measurement. A small house leans against the outer bank like a child clinging to a parent, perhaps built later by someone who saw the fort as a anchor for life rather than a relic to be admired.
Located on a shelf on a NE-facing slope. This is a circular grass-covered area (diam. 29m NE-SW; 29m NW-SE) defined by an earthen bank (at SW: Wth of base 6.2m; int. H 1m, ext. H 2.2m) separated by a flat-bottomed fosse (at SW: Wth of top 5m; Wth of base 2.8m; ext. D 1.6m) from an outer flat-topped bank (at SW: Wth of base 7m; Wth of top 4.4m; ext. H 0.6m) S-W, but the inner bank is reduced to a slight feature (at NE: Wth 2m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 0.4m) NW-E-S and the outer features do not survive elsewhere. A small house site (ext. dims 5m NW-SE; 4m NE-SW) defined by small earthen bank (Wth 1m; H 0.7-0.8m) abuts the outside of the outer bank at SW. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 1 February 2018

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What survives
Recorded monument

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