Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Tornanstown

Situated on a gentle ESE-facing slope, in gently undulating pasture. Trivallate monument described in 1971 as a roughly circular-shaped area (diam. 32.5m) enclosed by an inner bank, an intervening fosse, an intervening bank, an outer fosse and an outer bank. The inner bank is best preserved where it is high and steep from NE-E-S and is practically reduced to a scarp from S-W-N-NE. The intervening fosse is wide and deep and the intervening earthen bank is substantial. This bank has a modern gap at WNW and another at NNE. There is a wide outer fosse visible from SE-S-W-NNW which has part of a modern field bank along the outer edge from WNW-W-S-SSE. The remains of an outer earthen bank are slight and are visible from WNW-NNW and from SE-SSE. This outermost bank appears to have been modified from SE-SSE where it swings in to meet the middle bank at ESE and where it crosses the entrance gap. This wide entrance gap (Wth at top 5.5m; basal Wth 1.6m) is located in the inner bank and there is a corresponding gap (Wth at top 10m; basal Wth 4.5m) in the intervening bank. There are also vague suggestions of a causeway (overall Wth 8.2m; Wth at top 3m; H 0.2m) across the intervening fosse at this point. The interior has a general ESE-facing slope. A townland boundary encloses the monument from SE-S-W. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 02 October 2019