What is recorded here

Fairy forts are not forts at all, but circular scars in the ground where people once drew a line between inside and outside. In Steelaun that line has softened into pasture, yet the shape remains: a shallow bowl on elevated ground, facing the bay, with a faint rim of stone and memory on one side. The sea changed the land, fields changed the edge, and the fort became a fairy story because its purpose left human speech. What is left is not a building but a rhythm: a circle made by living, forgotten by time, and remembered through story.

In pasture, located on elevated ground overlooking Rathfran Bay. Ground falls away gradually for 200m to E to the stony shoreline, and rise gradually to W. Roughly circular area (c. 21m N-S; c. 20m E-W) defined by a dilapidated scarp (H 0.3-0.5m). The scarp can be traced clearly from S-NE, but elsewhere is poorly defined and, in parts, obscured by incorporation into later field walls, now levelled. On the SW arc the scarp has a slight, stony internal rim, marked by shorter grass growth, which may indicate the remains of an original enclosing wall or bank. The interior slopes down slightly from the centre to E. The surface is uneven, with numerous hollows and a few field clearance heaps. Remnants of a field wall bisect the interior centrally on an E-W axis. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 15 November 2018

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