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Promontory fort

Promontory fort, coastal

What is recorded here

Six headlands south of Dún an Óir still wear faint neck cuts, as if people chafed at the sea and tried to make the land hold its shape. Some banks remain low and stubborn, others have surrendered to grass and rain, but the repetition suggests pride rather than accident. These are not grand fortifications, yet they are the kind of place where human hands argued with the coastline and the coastline waited.
Possible promontory fort described in 2002 as follows; 'A series of six headlands along the coast south of Dún an Óir all show very slight evidence of having been cut off from the mainland by either earthen banks or ditches. The two northernmost ones have low earthen banks and a levelled drystone wall crossing the neck. The adjacent broad rectangular one has the remains of a wide levelled straight bank and faint fosse across the neck while the southernmost one has a slightly curving filled-in fosse defending it. Recent earthen banks cut off the middle two, but vague evidence of earlier defences is also visible. Not enough remains to ascertain the exact nature of the remains but all headlands are potential promontory forts that deserve further investigation' (Casey 2002, 68 DD).

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What survives
Recorded monument

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