What is recorded here

No fairies built Málainn Bhig, although people believed it. Human hands stacked a circular stone wall around a twenty-four metre yard on a ledge above Trabane Strand, probably centuries before written records reached Donegal. The collapsed rectangular chamber inside and the shallow northern ditch suggest a working household or defensive trap rather than a child's fairy ring. What is certain is that people lived there, marked the edge of the world with stone, and left the rest to legend.

Internal diam. 24.9m. A circular area enclosed by a collapsed stone wall up to 2.45m wide and up to .57m high. A fosse 2.1m wide and now c. 0.15m deep runs along the outside on the N half. This is not present on the S where the land falls away steeply. Internally on the E side is the collapsed remains of a rectangular stone structure (DG089-017002-). 4.8m externally and 2.35m internally E-W and 4m externally and 1.9m internally N-S. There are two, probably modern depressions in the cashel wall, one at the NW and another at the WSW. The site is located on a ledge above Trabane Strand. This is a National Monument in State care (no. 139 (3)). 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

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