What is recorded here
Fairy forts hide in plain sight, wearing the shape of ordinary farm boundaries and forgotten boundaries alike. This is one of them: a small earth ring set on open ground, old enough to have lost its name and its people. The fairies may have taken it over later, but humans lived there first, and their shadows still belong inside the circle.
On the top of a hill with land dropping steeply on all sides, in pasture. There are very good views in all directions. A circular raised area (diam c. 18m) enclosed by a bank (int. H 0.6m; ext. H 2.2m; Wth 1.5m), wide flat-bottomed fosse (Wth 2.5m; D 1.2m) and external flat-topped bank (ext. H 0.8m; basal Wth c. 4m). There is an original entrance and causeway (Wth 3m) at SSW. The interior, which is relatively free of vegetation, has a pronounced slope to the S, dropping by c. 1.4m. The fosse and outer bank in the S sector was levelled when the adjacent water treatment plant was built.
Compiled by: Jean Farrelly
Date of upload: 15 June 2020
A fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Radestown South is a circular earthen enclosure likely dating to the early medieval period, constructed as a defensive or ritual site. Local tradition associates such forts with fairy folk, and they were often avoided due to beliefs in their supernatural inhabitants.
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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