What is recorded here

Fairy fort in Ransborough, County Cork: a circular earthen ringfort about thirty metres across, mapped repeatedly from 1842 until field fences cut through it, then levelled around 1974 during land development. What remains is absence with a shape: a shallow memory in pasture where soil, fence and forgetting did the work of dismantling. The fairies never appeared in the accounts, yet the name insists they did, suggesting people saw more life in that ring than survey lines could capture.

In pasture, on gentle N-facing slope. Depicted as hachured circular enclosure (diam. c. 30m) on 1842, 1905 and 1936 OS 6-inch maps; W side cut off from remainder by N-S field fence; SE quadrant incorporated into E-W field fence. All surrounding field fences removed. No visible surface trace; according to local information, levelled c. 1974 during land development scheme. Aerial photograph (GSIAP; R 693) taken 1977 shows enclosure surviving to W of N-S field boundary; to E of field boundary, enclosure and E-W field fence levelled. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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