Fairy forts

i,m surprised that so many on here wouldn,t touch a fort , i don,t think i would either but then if i thought there was gold buried in them it might be a different story
 
image.jpeg We've a "fairy fort" here or a ring fort, many years ago when it was over grown with bushes a bullock slipped of one of the rings and got hung on a bush. After that the fort was cleared of bushes.
Here's a picture of how it looks now.
 
i,m surprised that so many on here wouldn,t touch a fort , i don,t think i would either but then if i thought there was gold buried in them it might be a different story
Could be why the superstition started!

How big are these things?
Seeing that @Agri Power raked inside one!
 
image.jpegWe have a "Giants Grave" in another one of our fields it's a burrial chamber was excavated by the OPW 25 years ago, never got any feed back or they never came back the fairies must have got them. It's just to the top right of the +.
 
There's "something" just below the yard in ours that I'd love to know more about. It's had a share of material from making the yards piled around it so it's hard to know how big it was or how old.

I'm generally in favour of preserving our heritage so wouldn't go bulldozing one, but I'd have zero qualms about cutting timber or bushes on one, the bushes are only nature's bulldozer
 
There's "something" just below the yard in ours that I'd love to know more about. It's had a share of material from making the yards piled around it so it's hard to know how big it was or how old.

I'm generally in favour of preserving our heritage so wouldn't go bulldozing one, but I'd have zero qualms about cutting timber or bushes on one, the bushes are only nature's bulldozer
The travelers would never cut sticks in a fairy rath . The Traveller that lives on the Blackbog Road said himself and his mother stopped one night and gathered some sticks and when they brought them home and put them on the fire they heard screams and had to quench the fire . It turned out they had inadvertently gathered the sticks on a fairy Rath and the Fairies were burning .
Interestingly he is the Only traveller I know of that rides a bicycle . His mother was expelled by her family when she became pregnant . She reared him on her own and have always camped in the same spot as long as I can remember . They were offered a house in Tinryland but were happy to stay at the side of the road even after his mother died . He used to visit two old lads down the road from me and they would have been very superstitious .
 
I would leave a fairy fort alone myself. Cant imaging I would ever be so caught for land to remove it. We used have one (a fort) on land that was owned in the family.
 
A lot of fairy forts/raths were burial places for unbaptized children while the church wouldn't allow them to be buried in the local graveyards. My father was very distressed when our next door neighbour and his best friend, bulldozed the area where his siblings and many more families little ones were buried.
 
Our farm had two raths on it. Both gone before my time. They can be seen on the area aid maps. One is square and is about .6 of a acre. I think they may have been a enclosure for livestock.
 
Our farm had two raths on it. Both gone before my time. They can be seen on the area aid maps. One is square and is about .6 of a acre. I think they may have been a enclosure for livestock.
Square forts were usually build and occupyied by the Normans afaik, and would have been made much later.
 
A lot of fairy forts/raths were burial places for unbaptized children while the church wouldn't allow them to be buried in the local graveyards. My father was very distressed when our next door neighbour and his best friend, bulldozed the area where his siblings and many more families little ones were buried.
have one of them down the road here grandparents were very upset when it was cleared 40 yrs ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cillín
 
This is our one. It’s in the field where we do the trial plots.

As you can see, the southern part was destroyed before we moved here.

I would have never damaged one but @gone ’s description of them being used as resting places for little ones makes me even more determined to leave it be.

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The travelers would never cut sticks in a fairy rath . The Traveller that lives on the Blackbog Road said himself and his mother stopped one night and gathered some sticks and when they brought them home and put them on the fire they heard screams and had to quench the fire . It turned out they had inadvertently gathered the sticks on a fairy Rath and the Fairies were burning .
Interestingly he is the Only traveller I know of that rides a bicycle . His mother was expelled by her family when she became pregnant . She reared him on her own and have always camped in the same spot as long as I can remember . They were offered a house in Tinryland but were happy to stay at the side of the road even after his mother died . He used to visit two old lads down the road from me and they would have been very superstitious .
He is a gentleman. Used to do a few days with us when sugar beet was around picking stones and other jobs like that. Very honest quiet man and he has a massive interest and knowledge in history. Have a great memory of him and another character who was fond of whiskey working with us one particular day. It was bitter cold and we stopped for a cup of tea to warm us. The man you mentioned lit a fire from twigs and leaves and had a blazing fire in a few minutes. Discussion started about various ways to light fires and he mentioned that whiskey was a great way to get a fire going. The other man nearly passed out at the thought of the wastage of good whiskey! Everytime I pass by him sitting at the fire now I think of the whiskey and the look of shock and horror on the other man and it always brings a smile to my face
 
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