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Fairy fort / stone ringfort in Ballyportry South

Fairy fort / stone ringfort

What is recorded here

Mortons and every other written account agree only that the fort exists. The contradiction is the shape, not the truth. A ring on one map, a sheepfold on another, an enclosure in a modern list. The stones never changed. They were recorded by people who saw different things because they came to ask different questions. What you go there to find is what the fort shows back.
On the W edge of a slightly raised area of partially overgrown limestone pavement, overlooking a small S-flowing stream c. 50m to the W. Hachured as a roughly circular ringfort on the first edition (1842) of the OS 6-inch map but recorded as a more rectangular-shaped structure labelled ‘Sheepfold’ on the slightly later OS 25-inch plan (1893), and similarly recorded but not labelled on the Cassini edition (1916) of the OS 6-inch map. Classified as an ‘enclosure’ in the RMP (1995). An oval cashel (int. diams. 36.6m NE-SW; 26.8m NW-SE) is defined by a double-faced drystone wall (Wth 1-1.3m; H 0.2-0.8m) that has been rebuilt in sections with poorer quality masonry. No original entrance is obvious. The interior is stony and partially overgrown with hazel scrub and contains a D-shaped enclosure (4.5m N-S; 3.5m E-W) defined by a drystone wall (H 1.4m; Wth 0.5m) in the W sector, abutting the cashel wall. This enclosure appears to be an original cashel subsequently reused as a sheepfold/agricultural enclosure. Curving field boundaries extending E may be contemporaneous with the original cashel.    Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Eve Campbell   Date of upload: 20-10-2025

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

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