Fairy fort / ringfort in Ballynamona (kenry By.)

In rough pasture, on break in W-facing slope, in area of outcropping limestone. Monument, depicted as circular enclosure (diam. c. 20m) on 1840 ed. OS 6-inch map, is now largely inaccessible due to dense overgrowth of briars and bushes. Short arc of stone bank (ext. H 0.4m; Wth 1.8m) is evident at N. A site inspection was undertaken by Anne Carey, Archaeologist, NMS, on 17th December, 2021, following a report of concern to the National Monuments Service on 15th December, 2021. The ground in both fields is undulating, rising to a long ridge, orientated north-east/south-west, in the second field. The Recorded Monument was located at the south-west end of this ridge and the land fell immediately beyond to the south-west. There was evidence of land clearance in the first field, mainly in the form of a trench that had been excavated parallel with and immediately adjacent to the public road, as well as multiple machine-tracks and stockpiled trees/scrub. The land clearance in the second field was far more comprehensive, involving the removal of vegetation, including sod, over much of the area and the stockpiling of trees/scrub. There was no surface trace of the archaeological monument. The ground on which it had been located largely comprised evenly graded topsoil, which had been smoothed with the back of the bucket in places. There was evidence of well-scattered medium-sized stones in the topsoil and, in places, a yellow-grey silty subsoil has been exposed under topsoil. There were no features evident during the walkover of the site and no finds of archaeological interest were discovered. See attached Google Earth orthoimages and photographs provided courtesy of Anne Carey Compiled by: Denis Power Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 1 June 2022