What is recorded here

Ruins of Ancient Entrenchment was an 80-metre bank and fosse on the north bank of the Fane River in County Monaghan, mapped in 1834 and still measurable in 1968 before disappearing by 1995. It may have been a promontory fort using the river as one defence, though no surviving wall or trench now proves it. The land keeps its shape in memory while the earth gave up its evidence.

Situated at the bottom of a S-facing slope and on the N bank of an E-W section of the Fane River. It almost connects with the stream at its W end. It is depicted as a linear feature (L c. 80m E-W) on the 1834 edition of the OS 6-inch map and as a bank with a fosse on its N side on the 1907 edition and it is described as the site of an ‘Ancient Entrenchment’ on both. It was described in 1968 (SMR file) as an overgrown bank (L 84.5m) bank that was larger at the E end (Wth of base 11.4m; Wth of top 3.5m; H at S 4.5m; H at N 2.6m) with a fosse (at E: Wth of top 10.7m; Wth of base 4m; ext. D 4m) on the N side. It declined almost to nothing at the W end and faint traces of the bank extended further E (L c. 27m). It had been removed by 1995 (OSAP), and Ó Drisceoil (2017, 32) thinks it may have been a promontory fort because of its proximity to the river. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revised upload: 27 February 2018

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