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Black Fort

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort
Black Fort
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What is recorded here

Black Fort is a ruined earthen ring in County Meath, reduced to shallow scars and broad rises because a field bank now cuts through its western half. The remaining eastern banks still mark a circular chamber where people may have lived, hidden, or simply passed time before ploughs and property lines forgot the shape. What is left feels less like a monument than a breath held by the land, waiting for someone to walk the seam and remember the room beneath the grass.
Located toward the bottom of a SW-facing slope. This is a subcircular grass and scrub-covered area (37.5m NW-SE; 33m NE-SW) that is bisected by a NNE-SSW field bank and the features barely survive on the W side of this. It is defined by an overgrown earthen bank (at SE: Wth at base 3m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 1.1m) that is reduced to a scarp (at NW: Wth 3m; H 0.6m) SSW-N-NNE. The inner bank is separated by an external fosse (at SE: Wth of top 4m; Wth of base 2.5m; ext. D 1m) from an outer bank (at SE: Wth of base 4.5m; ext. H 0.5m) NNE-S-SSW. The fosse is reduced to a berm (at NW: Wth 5m) and the outer bank to a broad rise (Wth 8m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 0.4m) SSW-N-NNE. There is a ramp entrance (Wth of base 2m) through the inner bank at SE, and there are traces of a third outer bank (at SE: Wth 5m; H 0.1-0.3m) NE-S-SSW. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 3 September 2018 Amended: 14/12/2022

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What survives
Recorded monument

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