What is recorded here
Skaghardgannon holds a levelled fairy fort where a faint fosse still circles pasture on a west-facing slope. People called it a fairy fort because the boundary vanished while the shape remained, inviting imagination to fill the gap. Mapmakers drew the ring repeatedly between 1842 and 1937, recording a human-made marker that farming gradually erased. The site resists easy belief, presenting a circular scar large enough for residence but smooth enough to suggest fantasy.
In pasture, on W-facing slope. Depicted as hachured circular enclosure (diam. c. 25m) 1842 OS 6-inch map; hachured on 1906 and 1937 OS 6-inch maps as circular area (diam. c. 30m and c. 20m respectively) enclosed by fosse. Levelled; outline of fosse traceable enclosing circular area (41m E-W; 37.7m N-S).
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
A fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Skaghardgannon is a circular earthen enclosure, likely an early-medieval ringfort, indicated by its hachured representation on 19th- and early 20th-century Ordnance Survey maps. The site, situated on a west-facing slope, is associated with local folklore regarding fairy activity, as suggested by its "fairy fort" name.
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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