What is recorded here

Half a ring of earth still bulges through the pasture at Ballycunningham, the other half swallowed by fences and forgetting. For centuries the fort stood whole, twenty-five metres across, a small world with a door and a dark interior where someone lived, raged, starved or loved. The fairies never appeared in the evidence; they appear in the shape, a circle complete enough to exclude people and mysterious enough to belong elsewhere. What remains is not a ruin but a boundary, the place where human certainty ends and invention begins.

In pasture. Depicted as hachured circular enclosure (diam. c. 25m) on 1842,1903 and 1938 OS 6-inch maps. Levelled; E bank survives as low rise (H 0.2m). Field fence at N side of enclosure may incorporate short portion of original bank. According to Hartnett (1939, 170), half of original rampart remained to E, consisting of low bank overgrown with furze; at W and N fort bounded by modern fence. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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