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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Roxborough

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts are not fairy forts. They are human made. Build them, people. Maybe to keep out others. Maybe to keep in what they loved. The bones are gone. The shape remains. Two rings of earth and a dark gap between. That is all. But it is also enough to show someone lived, feared, raged or begged. The field wall cut through later. Indifference is the usual enemy. Memory needs watching. Forgetting is the default. What raged or loved is gone. The circle still stands. That is the whole tragedy. Shape outlives thought. Every time.
In level pastureland. Well-preserved circular rath (diam. 48.8) defined by two banks of earth and stone and an intervening fosse. The very substantial inner bank is visible all round. The fosse is wide, deep and flat bottomed. The outer bank is preserved from SSE through W to NE. Its E section has been defaced where a N-S running field wall and roadway clip it. A post and wire fences runs E-W just to its N and another runs N-S to its W. There is a causewayed entrance gap (Wth 2m) at SE. Numerous depressions and low grass-covered banks are visible in the interior. A possible Man-made underground passage (GA114-157001-) is associated (SMR file). Another rath (GA114-156----) lies c. 120m to the NNE. This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 3/1983). The following image has been uploaded: GA114-157----_01.jpg View of inner bank, fosse and outer bank at SSE Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG Date of upload: 8 March 2018

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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