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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Grousehall

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human ringforts misnamed because people stopped remembering the hands that built them. In Grousehall, a sixteen-metre circle of earth and ditch still stands on a grassy hill, its narrow southwest gap pointing toward the land it once faced. The inside was cultivated, perhaps a garden, before becoming pasture and legend. The fairies did not invent the fort; forgetting did.
Internal diam. 16.7m. A subcircular area enclosed by an earthen bank up to .63m in height and a silted fosse up to 1.6m wide. The interior is level but was formerly cultivated as a garden. A gap 1.45m wide to the SW was probably the entrance. It is situated on the summit of a small hill in good pasture commanding excellent views. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

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

What survives
Recorded monument

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