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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Port

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Meadow grass and forgotten time have swallowed the fort, leaving only a shallow circular scar on the hillside. Yet the earth still holds the shape of human intention, a temporary boundary drawn against the infinite dark. The fairies never lived there; they merely inherited the loneliness. What humans built, they completed by forgetting it.
Located on the NE-facing slope of a hill. This is a grass-covered circular area (int. diam. 24.5m N-S; 24m E-W) defined by a round-topped and overgrown, steep-sided earthen bank (at W: Wth 4.45m; int. H 0.9m; ext. H 1.1m) S-W-N, which is reduced to a scarp elsewhere and which is separated by a fosse (at W: Wth of base 4.15; D 0.75m) from an outer bank (at W: Wth 3.4m; H 0.1m) SW-N. The original entrance is not identified visually. Rath (LE027-066----) is c. 25m to the SW. A magnetic gradiometry survey in the vicinity of both raths produced mixed results with much modern disturbance that is likely to be ploughing and drainage evident. However, a number of features that could be pits or natural hollows were also recorded N of (LE027-067----). Running NE from (LE027-066---) two arcs of positive anomalies c. 5m apart appear to be leading to the SW quadrant of (LE027-067----), perhaps as a causeway with ditches at either side. An earth resistance survey along the E side of this rath can confirm the presence of a bank and outer fosse here, but there is no evidence of an external bank on this side. High resistance anomalies in the interior suggest that whatever features are present have a large stone component, although no pattern could be discerned. A line of high resistance anomalies across the bank and ditch at SE hints at the possibility of an entrance here. (Curran 2015, 8-9) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of revised upload: 8 June 2018

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What survives
Recorded monument

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