What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human ringforts misnamed because people stopped remembering they were human. In Routagh, County Limerick, a sub-oval stone enclosure about forty metres across still lies hidden beneath scrub and pasture, its dry wall barely visible at the south and east. The name suggests exclusion, as if the place belonged to beings who did not want witnesses. More likely, it is a forgotten human dwelling made strange by distance, where ordinary residents became fairies simply because nobody remembered their names.

Situated in well-drained gently undulating pasture. Indicated on the 1924 OS 6-inch map as a sub-oval area (c. 40m NW-SE; 40m NE-SW) defined by a scarp from S to NE and enclosed entirely by a field boundary. The perimeter of the monument is now obscured by dense scrub vegetation but parts of an enclosing dry-stone wall-bank is evident (ext. H 0.6m; Wth. 2.4m; int. H 0.4m) at S and SE. The interior slopes gently down to the E. Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 19 March 2013

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