What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human remains misread through wonder, often built by ordinary people and later forgotten. In Carrowmore a circular cashel still stands partially buried in grass, its wall reduced in places but still traceable across the pasture. The gap in the eastern wall invites imagination, yet the stones themselves record human labour, not fairy trickery. Wonder belongs in the story people tell; fact belongs in the shape they made.

When visited by the Ballinrobe Archaeological Survey in 1989 this cashel was recorded as follows: ‘On slight rise, in undulating pasture. Circular area (51.5m N-S; 48m E-W) enclosed by sod-covered stone wall (H 1.1m; Wth 1.7m), overlain by stone fence SW to N. Gap (Wth 1.6m) in ESE.’ (Lavelle (1994, 43, no. 263). An inspection in 2018 found that the cashel wall has been removed from NNE−SW, but its course can still be traced as a low grass-covered undulation. The W half of the cashel, where a later field wall overlies the lower courses of the original cashel wall, remains unchanged. There is a possible house (MA118-063----) 55m to W. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of revised upload: 24 May 2018

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.