Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Monaster North

On a N-facing slope, in wet pasture, 5m E of a townland boundary with Garrane. Bowl-barrow (LI031-004----) lies 125m to W. Depicted on the 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch map as a circular-shaped earthwork. Westropp (1920, 373) describes this monument as, ‘a featureless ring mound, 3 to 4 feet (0.91m-1.22m) high, with large hawthorns here and there on its circuit and no raised garth’. Monument surveyed by the ASI in 2007 and described as an oval-shaped area (20m ESE-WNW; 14m NNE-SSW) enclosed by an earthen bank (Wth 6.55m; int. H 0.35m; ext. H 0.65m) best preserved from SE-SSE-S with faint traces from NW-NNW-N and external fosse (Wth 4.8m; D 0.1m) that has been infilled at SSW and re-cut at SW and NW. Breaches in bank at N (Wth 1.2m), NE (Wth 1.2m), ENE (Wth 4m) and SE (Wth 2m) appear modern. A field drain intersects the fosse at NW and a field boundary running N-S truncates the exterior of fosse at W. The interior is dry and planted with deciduous trees. A field boundary depicted on the current ed. OSi 6-inch map, to S of the monument, has been removed. Monument is visible as an irregular-shaped tree-covered earthwork on OSi aerial orthoimage taken 2005-2012, on Digital Globe orthoimage taken 2011-2013 and on Google Earth orthoimage taken 28/06/2018. See attached Google Earth orthoimage and sketch plans, cross-sections and photographs surveyed, drawn and taken by the ASI. Also sketch plan of the assembly place of the Óenach Cairbre and other associated monuments in its vicinity, on the flood plain of the Camoge River (after Westropp 1920, 373). Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 27 October 2020