What is recorded here

Ballyshanny’s fairy fort is a subcircular cashel thirty-eight metres across, its double-faced stone wall still raising the interior above the pasture. The neatness of that circle, set on a hillock where the land falls away on nearly every side, makes the smaller wonders inside it more believable: a man-made underground passage in the centre and the remains of a house near the NNW edge. Perhaps people lived there, went down into the passage when the work was done, and left the fort looking like a place the land had made for itself.

On a hillock in undulating pasture, with land sloping steeping on all sides except to the NE, and within a large multiperiod field system (CL009-059001-). Hachured on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. This subcircular cashel (int. dims. 38.6m NE-SW; 37.3m NW-SE) is defined by a double-faced stone wall (Wth 2.2m; int. H 0.45m; ext. H 1.2m) which survives most clearly at NE, with associated grass-covered stone spill. Elsewhere only the lower courses of the outer wall-face survive, retaining the raised interior. Plinth stones, projecting up to 0.4m, are visible at the base of the outer wall-face. In one account Westropp (1900-02, 429) recorded the cashel entrance as at E, and in another (1900, 398) at S, with steps leading down from it. An earthfast block at SW appears to be part of the inner wall-face. A later drystone wall is built on the outer wall-face. Outside the cashel at SE the original ground level has been lowered by 0.4m, exposing grey marl under the plinth stones. A Man-made underground passage (CL009-097002-) lies in the centre of the interior and the remains of a house (CL009-097003-) are visible in the NNW sector. An ESB pole has been erected c. 4m to the SE of the Man-made underground passage. An enclosure (CL009-059002-) lies c. 170m to the ENE. The following images have been uploaded: CL009-097----_01.jpg View from NNW CL009-097----_02.jpg View from W Compiled by: Olive Alcock and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 25 May 2022

A sub-circular fairy fort or stone ringfort in Ballyshanny, likely dating to the early medieval period, is situated on a hillock within a multiperiod field system. It appears hachured on early Ordnance Survey maps, suggesting possible use as a quarry or secondary feature, and is associated with local folklore surrounding fairy activity and otherworldly beings.

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