What is recorded here

Fairy forts and Irish ringforts are one and the same: circular embankments built by people, later renamed because the fairies sounded more likely to occupy an empty fort than humans would. In Towas the fort sat on a steep slope above the Kilmainham stream, large enough to hold a small community and visible far across the valley. It has mostly vanished now, leaving only a slight curve in a field bank and a name preserved on an old map. What remains is not a mystery of fairies but a record of forgetting: people stopped using it, stopped maintaining it, and told a better story about it instead.

Situated on a steep NE-facing slope overlooking the valley of the NW-SE Kilmainham stream, which is c. 330m distant. A circular embanked enclosure (ext. diam. c. 45-50m) is depicted only on the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map where it is described in gothic lettering as a ‘Fort’. There is no indication of an archaeological monument in pasture apart from a curve (Chord c. 35m) in a field bank at E. 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: 3 September 2018

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