What is recorded here

Fairy forts in Ireland are earthen rings, not magical palaces. In Shanacashel the bank is low but the ditch is still cut into the hill, and a narrow entrance faces southeast. People may have lived there, herded there or kept something hidden beneath the centre before fields and walls changed its shape. The fairies are a later story; the earth is the older witness.

In undulating pasture land, on E side of hillock. Roughly circular raised area (48m E-W; 44m N-S) enclosed by low earthen bank (int. H 0.25m; ext. H 2.5m); external fosse (D 0.8m) survives SW->NW. Top of bank mainly disturbed by remains of cultivation ridges, which cross interior on ENE-WSW axis; low field boundary built atop bank NW->N. Entrance (Wth 3.3m) to ESE. Fosse defined at each end by field boundaries and enclosed along outer edgeby low, partially overgrown stone wall. Interior level except for large area inside entrance which slopes down towards exterior; Man-made underground passage (8934) at centre. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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