What is recorded here

Half a dozen stone cells once stood inside the earthen rampart on Brandon Hill, waiting for hands that stopped touching them before the ferns returned. The moat still cuts a narrow mouth across the slope, holding rain and shadow while the forest leans close. Whatever lived there did not build for display, but for repetition, and the quiet shape of the site still answers that purpose.

On the E-facing slope of Brandon Hill, although in a clearing in forestry it is heavily covered with vegetation including ferns and scrub. It is described by Moore (1849-51, 23) as a 'quadrangular fort', which ‘besides possessing the usual fosse and rampart, contained within the enclosed space foundations of buildings [KK029-033002- to KK029-033007-], laid out apparently in small cells, of which there were about half a dozen, as nearly as I can recollect. These foundations were constructed of regular masonry, which I conceive to be of antiquity coeval with the earthen fortifications which surrounded them’. It is shown on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map as a sub-rectangular enclosure (dims. S L c. 0.35m broadening to c. 42m at N, E L c. 65m and W L c. 60m) with a long narrow rectangle (L c. 48m; Wth c. 8m), aligned N-S, indicated on the W side. It is described after a field visit in 2016 (pers. comm. Seán Quealy, Environmental Officer, Coillte, 28 November 2018), as a rectangular area (overall dims. N L 42m; E L 67m; S L 42m; W L 62m) defined by a raised platform, fosse (basal Wth c. 2m; top Wth c. 3.5m; D 1.5m) and outer bank. No internal features were noted at time of field visit in 2016. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 10 December 2018

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