Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Monaster North

On a S-facing slope, in gently undulating, low-lying improved pasture, overlooking the Camoge River, which also forms a townland boundary between Monaster North and South. A smaller enclosure (LI031-012----) lies 45m to SSE and conjoined enclosures (LI031-010002-) known as the assembly place of Óenach Cairbre, lie 520m due W. Depicted on the 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch map as an oval-shaped earthwork. Annotated on Westropp’s sketch plan of Monasteranenagh as a ‘ring mound’, which appears to form part of the territory of the Oenach Cairbre (Westropp 1920, 373). Possibly referred to by Begley (1906, 18) as ‘Oenach beg’: The Oenach [LI031-010002-], near Manstir abbey, on the north bank of the Camoge, with its large conjoined mounds and its sidh mound [LI031-004----] and other earthworks was Oenach Beg, the very term suggesting the existence of the great Oenach.’ Westropp (1920, 372) describes the Oenach Cairbre territory as an ancient Celtic landscape and likens it to Tara, Telltown and Brugh na Bóinne in Co. Meath, Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon, The Curragh, Co. Kildare and nearby Knockainey Hill, Co. Limerick. He goes on to explain the common features of such archaeological complexes which often include an assembly-place [LI031-010002-], a sanctuary and a cemetery [LI031-004----] in the form of tumuli, cairns, ring mounds and platform forts which are often conjoined, old roads [LI031-010001-] and water supply (ibid). Westropp (1920, 372, 373 & 375) confirms that, ‘An ancient roadway’ leads from a fording point on the Camoge River, to the pair of conjoined ringforts (LI031-010002-), to which he refers to as the assembly place of the Óenach Cairbre. According to Westropp (1920, 373) the ford marks an earlier crossing point known as ‘The Ford of the Chariots of Fergus’. Power (1930, 43-4) describes the earthen monuments in the vicinity of Óenach Cairbre as, ‘Ancient earthworks of considerable size and extent [that] crown a gentle elevation on the north bank of the stream nearly opposite the abbey; These may have had connection with the great fair and its associated Pagan rites’. Monument surveyed by the ASI in 2007 and described as an oval-shaped area (30m WNW-ESE; 26m NNE-SSW) defined by a scarp (Wth 2.95m; H 0.8m) only visible from NW-N-E-S, with external fosse (Wth 4.05m; D 0.65m) best defined from NW-N-NE and from E-ESE-SE, is traceable from SE-S-W and is infilled from W-NW-NNW and from NE-ENE-E. The scarp (Wth 2.7m; H 1.4m) has been raised at SE to compensate for hillslope. Field clearance stones align the outer edge of the fosse from N-NNE. An outer scarp and a possible fosse are obscured by overgrowth from N-E-SE. The interior has a S-facing slope and levels off across the SE quadrant. A field boundary running NE-SW radiates from the exterior of the monument at E and a former field boundary at W has been removed. Monument is visible as a partially tree-covered oval-shaped earthwork on OSi aerial orthoimage taken 2005-2012, or on Digital Globe orthoimage taken 2011-2013 or on Google Earth orthoimage taken 28/06/2018. See attached Google Earth orthoimage, sketch plan by Westropp (1920, 373) and sketch plan, cross-sections and photographs surveyed and taken by the ASI. Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 30 October 2020