What is recorded here

Indicated is a huge heart-shaped hilltop enclosure in County Cavan, Ireland, large enough for dozens of people to walk inside its low bank and shallow ditch. It was still visible on maps in the nineteenth century, but local people have since levelled part of the perimeter, erasing the very line that made it a room rather than a field. The heart shape suggests love, longing or loss, yet no written account preserves whose desire built it or whose forgetfulness removed it.

A very large heart-shaped area (int. dims. c. 150m NE-SW; c. 85m NW-SE) on the summit of a hill, enclosed by a low, narrow bank and a shallow ditch similar in morphology to field boundaries in the vicinity. On the OS 1836 and 1876 eds. a break is indicated in the perimeter from SSW-W-NW, while the OS 1912 ed. shows the same area fully enclosed. Within the past decade the enclosing elements have been levelled from SSW-W-NW (local information). Known locally as a 'fort'. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 December 2008

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