What is recorded here

Fairy forts and real forts both belonged to people who wanted to mark and own the landscape. The fairies took the name later because they are at home in the hidden corners of human life. The field around Ballymahony is old enough to have kept both truths at once. What looks like a fairy story may be a human memory that lost its names.

On the gentle S-facing slope of a plateau, in an area of pasture and karst limestone, within a large field system (CL009-001001-). Hachured on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. Listed as ‘Enclosure’ in the RMP (1996). This cashel (ext. dims. 30m E–W; 27m N–S) is roughly D-shaped in plan with a straight N side. It is defined by a drystone wall (H 0.4-8m). A later field boundary has been built on top of it but the outer wall-face of the cashel is visible all round. The wall, including spread, varies in width from 2-3m but is 5-6m wide at N. There is a modern entrance gap at SW. Three depressions (each c. 5–6m ENE–WSW; c. 4m NNW–SSE) have been cut into the N sector of the interior and there is clearance cairn just NE of the centre. Compiled by: Conn Herriott and Olive Alcock Date of upload: 11 October 2021

A stone ringfort in Ballymahony, Ballymurphy, likely dates to the early medieval period and served as a defensive or agricultural settlement. It is locally known as a fairy fort, reflecting the common Irish tradition associating such sites with supernatural or otherworldly beings.

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