I have seen many aerial photographs of this site, but I never thought it would be this big and imposing. The banks of this fort are massive - there are a lot of concrete steps to climb to reach the inside! The outer bank is over 4m high inplaces and one of the paths leads you along the ditch between the inner and outer banks.
The 100m x 200m fort was the home of the Kings of Ulster. at one time it is said that the tides cames right up to the base of the monument and filled the gap between the banks. Looking at it today it is easy to consider it to be in a not-very-defendable location, but this extreme water feature would have changed this. A reminder that we shouldn't always judge monuments on what we see around them today.
At one end of the fort there is a mound with another deep ditch cut around its base; effectively making the fort into a motte and bailey.
All Sites Visited On 26th August 2007 « Previous Site Next Site »
A Random Selection of Nearby Monuments
Carrownalurgan (Co. Mayo) | Mullamast (Co. Kildare) | Lisda Rush (Co. Leitrim) |
Ballymacgibbon (Co. Mayo) | Dromagorteen (Co. Kerry) | Tornant Lower (Co. Wicklow) |