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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Rathglass

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Quarrying bit through the northern earth and took the fort's memory with it, leaving a scarred oval on the Galway ridge where men once drew a line around their own lives. Trees still circle the hole like a forgotten wedding ring, perhaps planted in the nineteenth century to mark what remained. The fair fort is half-erased now, but the shape holds: a small place made serious by the depth of its soil and the distance of its makers.
On a ridge in former demesne land. An oval earthen enclosure (NNE-SSW 37.2, WNW-ESE 29.5), in fair condition, defined by a scarp (H 1.95m max.), except from SE to S where a small section of a bank survives. From NNW through N to NE, quarrying has destroyed the enclosing element. Trees growing around the enclosure may indicate that it was reused as a tree-ring enclosure in the 19th C. According to local information, the monument is known as 'the fort'. An earthwork (GA086-216----) lies 50m to NNE. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Date of upload: 05 August 2010

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What survives
Recorded monument

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