What is recorded here

Half-buried in the low land beside Smerwick Harbour, the fairy fort in Gallaras still keeps its shape: a wide earthen ring, broken in places, with a narrow gap facing east and a raised stone-strewn platform in the middle. It sits where three fields meet, as if the land itself had folded around it. Perhaps people lived there, or perhaps they walked past it and called it a fairy fort because it belonged nowhere they could name.

Internal diam. 33.5m N-S, 37.5m E-W A univallate rath situated on the low-lying land SE of Smerwick Harbour. It is located at the junction of 3 fields, and field fences raditate out from the site at SW, NW and E. The enclosing earthen bank and fosse are much eroded and disturbed in places. The fosse is c. 2 to 3m wide and a maximum of .75m deep. The bank is revetted internally with drystone-walling, up to 1.8m high. It rises a maximum of 2.5m above the bottom of the fosse and averages 3.5 to 4m in width at base. There are traces of drystone facing on the outer flank of the bank at WNW. The entrance faces E and consists of a .5m wide break through the bank. The fosse at this point is only barely perceptible and it is not clear whether or not there was a causeway. A .5m wide gap through the bank at WSW appears to be a secondary feature. There may also have been an entrance gap at WNW where the bank is very eroded and overlain for a short stretch by a stone wall. A roughly circular raised area, up to .6m high, occupies the centre of the interior and may be a house-platform. It has a stony surface, and 1 to 2 courses of drystone masonry survive along its SW edge. A large slab set on edge lies directly S of this latter feature. Another large prostrate slab, in the E sector of the raised area, could possibly be part of a Man-made underground passage KE042-070001-. The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 427. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 7 August 2013

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