What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human places misnamed because people stopped remembering the hands that built them. This is one of those: a stone-ringed hilltop house in Ballyhine, large enough to hold a small life and set above the land like a chair pulled out for watching. The fairies never lived there; they inherited the forgetting.

In pasture, located on top of a ridge with a fall of ground to SW, and extensive views SE–NW. Ground level rises gradually to N–NE. Shown as a circular enclosure (diam. c. 45m) on the 1838 OS 6-inch map; not shown on the 1916 edition. Oval platform (50m NW−SE; 40.5m NE–SW) defined by an earthen scarp topped with a low stony bank (Wth 4.5-5m). The stone bank has a pronounced inner rim (Wth 1m; int. H 0.3), which may incorporate wall footings, and has a broad external stony slump (H 0.7m at S) at SE–SW. The earthen scarp (H 1.4m) upon which the stone bank rests is more sharply defined at SW–NW; this may be the result of incorporation of this side of the enclosure into a field fence, now removed. A slight depression, which is evident outside the scarp at SW–NW, may therefore be the remains of a field ditch rather than evidence of an original fosse. The interior is level and grassy with traces of cultivation ridges on a N–S or NNE−SSW axis. Present access is at SW where there is a low ramp-like feature (Wth 2m) set at an oblique angle to the scarp, but this may be a relatively recent feature rather than an original entrance. A field fence on a N–S axis clips the outer edge of the stone bank at E. To NNW there is a discrete area of quarrying into the scarp. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 20 December 2021

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