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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Tankardstown (navan Lower By.)

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

On a narrow rise where the Blackwater loops north, a circular earthen bank still marks a lost dwelling. The river once touched the fort’s edge before human hands redirected the water, leaving a steep scarp where the current cut through ancient soil. Inside the overgrown ring, the ground slopes sharply toward the NE, preserving the shape of a place where people lived beside moving water long before the fields swallowed it.
TSituated on a rise in a north loop of the NW-SE River Blackwater, with the W-E stream turning SE c. 70m to the N, but prior to the Boyne drainage of the early twentieth century a channel of the river was immediately to the NE of the rath. This is a now a circular overgrown area (diam. 31m NNW-SSE; 31m ENE-WSW) that slopes down severely to the NE (H 2.2m). It is defined by an earthen bank (at WSW: Wth of base 5.5m; int. H 0.7m; ext. H 1.7m) SSW-NW and by an overgrown scarp (at ENE: Wth 6m; H 4.4m) NW-E where it has been cut by the drainage. There is an outer fosse and outer bank E-SSE that morph into an E-W field bank and outer drain S-SW, where it meets a N-S field bank and external drain. There is a possible entrance (Wth of base 4.1m) at NNW where there is a gap between the bank and the drainage-cut scarp. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 15 April 2019

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What survives
Recorded monument

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