What is recorded here

Half-buried under pasture and time, the Downings North ringfort keeps its shape only in the memory of the land. Its earthen ribs still curve around an absent heart, and the flat western edge suggests a door that once faced the living world. What remains is a shadow of enclosure, large enough to hold a household or a herd, but worn so thin it may dissolve before the next century.

Near the bottom of a short, gentle, N-facing pasture slope. A very poorly preserved, D-shaped area (diam. c. 50m E-W) with a straight W side (L c. 40m) is defined by a low scarp (H 0.4-0.8m) SE-N-E, and elsewhere by a short arc of low, intermittently gapped, earthen bank (Wth 4m; int H 0.4m; ext H 0.8m), and by a shallow, outer fosse (Wth 2m; D 0.2m) NE-E-SE. Degraded opposing gaps (Wth 2m) at N and S may be modern. The present W limits are truncated to accommodate a boithrín and farm buildings immediately outside to the SW and W which are shown on the 1st ed. (1838) of the OS 6-inch map. The interior is heavily poached by livestock. An annexe (KD013-010002-) adjoins the monument at S. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

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