Fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Ballinlough Big

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

What is recorded here

Located in a slight col with higher ground to the NW and SE, and at the top of a S-facing slope. This is depicted as a circular embanked enclosure (ext. diam. c. 40m) on the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map where it is described in gothic lettering as a ‘Fort’ and as a D-shaped field on the 1908 edition. This is a D-shaped grass-covered area (dims 51m NNE-SSW; 41m WNW-ESE) defined by an earthen bank (Wth of base 2-3m; int. H 0.6-1m; ext. H 1-1.6m) with some bushes and a straight NNE-SSW field wall (Wth 1.4m; H 0.8m) at W, but there is no evidence of the monument W of this feature. There is no visible fosse and the only entrance is a gap (Wth of base 1m) at SSW.

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record ME009-078

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Photo credits

Maker not stated on source page, www.alamy.com
Maker not stated on source page, www.gaia.com
Maker not stated on source page, www.knowth.com
David Mullen / John Quirke Photography, credited by Meath GAA, meath.gaa.ie
Bob Embleton, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Maker not stated on source page, ca.pinterest.com
Kieran Campbell, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Kieran Campbell, Geograph · Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Maker not stated on source page, www.irishamericanmom.com
Maker not stated on source page, www.abdn.ac.uk
Maker not stated on source page, br.pinterest.com

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