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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Tullynaskeagh East

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human makes: ring-shaped earthworks where people lived, kept stock or marked territory before written records. In Tullynaskeagh East that make was a broad earthen edge, a ditch and an outer bank on a gentle ridge, large enough to hold a household and small enough to read at a glance. It has since vanished under farming or development, leaving only a faint shadow in satellite images. The fairness in its name does not remove the people; it records the moment human shape stopped being obvious and became a story told beside the field.
Situated on the gentle N-facing slope of a small NW-SE ridge. This was described in 1967 (SMR file) as a raised subcircular grass-covered area (dims 43.5m ENE-WSW; 37m NNW-SSE) defined by an overgrown perimeter consisting of an earthen bank or scarp (at NE: Wth 4.6m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 2m) separated by a fosse (at NE: Wth of top 6.4m; Wth of base 2.5m; ext. D 0.6m) from an outer bank (at NE: Wth 3.5m; ext. H 2.9m). The outer bank was best preserved W-N-E but had been replaced by a field bank S-W. The entrance through the inner (Wth of base 1.8m) and outer (Wth of base 3.4m) banks with a causeway (Wth of top 2.5m) was at NNE. The rath had been removed by 1995 (OSI images) where it can be seen as a cropmark of a single fosse with internal and external banks. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of revision: 31 July 2017

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What survives
Recorded monument

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