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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Patch (mountbellew Ed)

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts in Galway are often just abandoned farmsteads, but local story claims they belong to hidden people. This particular ring sits in open grassland, thirty-five metres across, with a solid earth bank and a surrounding ditch. The two-metre gap on the south side may be an original entrance rather than collapse. People walked past it for centuries, some fearing the fairies, others simply needing a place to sit and watch the sky.
In grassland. Circular ringfort (D 35m), in fair condition, defined by a bank of earth and stone and external fosse. A gap (Wth 2m) at S may be original. (Claffey 1983, 161) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Date of upload: 05 August 2010

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

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