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Promontory fort

Promontory fort, coastal

What is recorded here

Three small south-facing headlands along the indented southern shores of Kilfarnoge still carry earthen banks and outer ditches across their necks, clinging to the western entrance of Ventry Harbour. Their interiors remain tiny, less than eleven metres long and seven metres wide, while sheer cliffs block seaward escape and force every living thing inward. The main point beside them shows traces of larger enclosing banks, suggesting the smaller headlands served a wider defensive or ceremonial arrangement rather than standing alone. Today fertile grazing covers much of the earthworks, yet the narrow necks and cliff-bound platforms still read as deliberate human shaping of a violent coastal edge.
Promontory fort described in 2002 as follows; ‘Along the indented southern shores of Kilfarnoge, the western side of the entrance to Ventry Harbour are three small south-facing headlands (KENEW 22, KENEW 23 and KENEW 24), all with the remains of an earthen bank and outer fosse cutting across their respective necks. All are interiors are small, less than 11m long and 7m wide, and the enclosing elements 2m to 3.5m wide and at most 1m from the base of the fosse to the highest part of the bank. The only internal features visible are traces of a perimeter bank. Sheer cliffs flanking each headland render the sea inaccessible from the interior. The mainland (Parkmore Point) (KENEW 21) shows traces of having itself being enclosed by a series of banks and ditches, making the three headlands subsidiary ones. The remains of the main enclosing bank across the point are visible between two of the small headlands (arrowed). The area is one of fertile grazing’ (Casey 2002, 56, no. V).

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What survives
Recorded monument

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