Fairy fort / stone ringfort in Shantallow

In gently undulating limestone grassland, straddling an E-W seam of limestone bedrock. Views are good, especially extensive to W. Recorded in an aerial photograph (SMR file: GSI M 26 –7; Roll 205, pr. 3) as a square or subcircular enclosure crossed roughly centrally by a field wall on a N–S axis. The outline of a roughly square enclosure (36m NW–SE; c. 36m NE–SW) with rounded corners can be discerned at ground level. It is defined on its W half by a low, sod-covered stone bank/wall (Wth c. 3.5m; int. H 0.5m; ext. H 0.3m at SW). To E of the N-S field wall which crosses the interior, the enclosure has been levelled, but the curve of the N–NE angle can still be traced. The enclosing wall on the W half is dilapidated and varies in width, and has clearly been much disturbed and robbed out in the past. At N it appears to coincide with a natural bedrock seam. Remnants of original stone facing may survive at SW. At S–SW the wall merges with a low natural rise that extends as a roughly triangular terrace (max. dim. 11m) to SW of the enclosure. Several sod-covered stony heaps and spreads are evident in the interior. The interior slopes down gradually from N to S, levelling out in the SW quadrant which is clear of stone and appears slightly sunken relative to the rest of the interior. The drop in interior ground level from N to S is c. 1-1.5m Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 21 December 2022