Fairy rings

Is it a protected structure

Ah on the plus side you can blame anything that goes wrong on the fairies

In reality, 2 acres is feck all nowadays...

50 or 100 years ago, 2 acres was a lot of land. But even then - they left these places alone...

I’d be if the opinion to leave it alone, not cos of the fairies, but more cos of the history. I wouldn’t like to be the one in a line of people that tore the place up...

Sean Quinn moved on for a quarry. I wouldn't go near it.

BarryD2 wrote: »

What do you mean by 'fairy ring'? There are raths or ringforts and these are normally national monuments and protected but they would normally be about 30-50 yards or so in diameter so nowhere near 2+ acres. The only enclosures that size are the large hilltop forts and the like and these are most defitinely protected monuments. But sometimes people refer to fairy rings as places where you get patterns of fungi and sometimes they are places associated with burials. Most townlands had cillíns in them, places where you could bury infants that died during childbirth or very young before baptism etc.

In general as regards raths and cillíns, they are associated with human habitation and burial respectively and I think that is why the tradition of not disturbing them exists. Just out of respect for those that have gone before us.

I was passing by a Rath today that was 6 acres in area enclosed by a double ditch. In the Norman times a house was built inside with a circular high wall then built around the perimeter of the Rath. They also had the highest flagpole in the country till recent times to communicate with ships.

In that same area there looks to be a Neolithic circler monument with numerous rings. According to Google maps there seems to have been an archaeological dig on a part of it.
I wouldn't have had a clue about the monument only I was looking at Google maps to see where I was after travelling when I got home. It only seems to have survived because it was in a remote area not really suited much to farming up till nowadays.

Even in my own locality Raths could go and went to nearly 2 acres. But there's been huge destruction of these down through the years.

Edit: on that 6 acre Rath. The link provided on this thread. States that it could be a fort built by Danes or an important Roman era/ Celtic Druidic place of worship. I suppose it's no harm to say the location is Ballytrent house.

mikeymouse wrote: »

If it's marked on this map i'd leave it alone

Jesus, there's some amount of forts on that. I see some marked in our land that I've never known existed.

NIMAN wrote: »

Are people saying 'leave well alone' doing it tongue in cheek?

Surely adults aren't putting any store in such nonsense.

No, superstition is very much alive

ganmo wrote: »

No, superstition is very much alive

A fella told me the fairies turned him into a frog!!! :eek:

NIMAN wrote: »

Unbelievable.
In the 21st century too!

There are also fines and penalties for impacting listed archaeological features and they are very much part of the 21st century ...

gozunda wrote: »

There are also fines and penalties for impacting listed archaeological features and they are very much part of the 21st century ...

I'm not talking about archaeological sites, if that's what they are.

But 'fairy rings'.

If the former, of course leave well alone.

If the latter, catch yourself on

NIMAN wrote: »

Unbelievable.
In the 21st century too!

Your thinking is not a new phenomenon.

The early Christian missionaries in this country set up churches and monasteries in places formally occupied by the druids in a bid to wipe out any trace of their existence and bring the country into the 5th century.

NIMAN wrote: »

Unbelievable.
In the 21st century too!

I'd agree it's a bit mad, in this day and age of scientific knowledge that a fairy fort or ring or tree would still put doubts and caution in to people's heads.
Is there a scientific reason for the green circles
An unusall one is in the parents place for about 30 yrs there was a perfect ring about 30ft across bridging the back field and the back lawn only stud fencing between more visible in summer time . Thing is about 4 years ago it disappeared altogether, most unusual .

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

I'd agree it's a bit mad, in this day and age of scientific knowledge that a fairy fort or ring or tree would still put doubts and caution in to people's heads.
Is there a scientific reason for the green circles
An unusall one is in the parents place for about 30 yrs there was a perfect ring about 30ft across bridging the back field and the back lawn only stud fencing between more visible in summer time . Thing is about 4 years ago it disappeared altogether, most unusual .

Not particularly unusual. New circular enclosures appeared as 'crop' mark's in fields in the Boyne valley during last years drought. The shallower or organic rich soil causes different growth rates depending on weather conditions. Again older people would have called these fairy forts and attributed their magical appearance to the wee folk. Archaeology has provided new knowledge of many of these sites that they are previously undiscovered historical manmade features which have otherwise disappeared.

BarryD2 wrote: »

Worth noting too that not all these features are on maps. They only appear in the national monument records maps if some official adds them.

But local people usually know far more about their own land than government officials and word will have been passed down the generations about particular spots, usually for some good reason.

Indeed - I have famine potatoe ridges and graves on my place in North Mayo that have remained untouched for over 170 years.

Steer55 wrote: »

very sad

It's something that is not really talked about imo. But of those who died of starvation were reported to have died in diches and by the side of the road and bodies were not necessarily found imo. The same of mud walled cottages which fell in and became the last resting places of those that died there or who were buried without a funeral. There are a lot of people who died - not all were buried in famine pits. Even many of those are unmarked.

gozunda wrote: »

It's something that is not really talked about imo. But of those who died of starvation were reported to have died in diches and by the side of the toad and imo bodies were not necessarily found imo. The same of mud walled cottages which fell in and became the last resting places of those that died there or who were buried without a funeral. There are a lot of people who died - not all were buried in famine pits. Even many of those are unmarked.

A bit off topic. But imo they may start to review these modern cemeteries on the edge of towns.
Fairly soon the cemeteries will be bigger than the towns.
It's one extreme to the other.

I read somewhere that the idea of building the ditches in raths was a direct action against plague in the 600's. It'd be like a scene from "The Walking Dead".
Just when Christianity came into the country.

Whatever about the fairies, if it's a ringfort or whatever and protected you'll get a fair wallop of a fine. Land bought round here had a road put thru one and fine followed, dunno if sfp was hit as well

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Ring Forts and Cilin (second i has a fada) are different things. Forts were basically enclosed raised areas where people lived. We have both within metres of us.

I was digging a few rocks out of meadowing last week that had come up with the dry weather last year. I noticed that when I pulled up one small rock there were more there. I have a feeling that there is a ring there as the ground is slightly elevated. in a circle or a dry piece of ground about 10 meters in diameter. This is low ground in a small valley. On the top of the hill there are two ring forts and about 40 in the area.

Funny thing is this. about 10 years ago there was a lightning strike which hit the ground right in the middle of this circle. It's a very low point between two hills with no conductor or trees.
Never thought anything about it until last week. On google earth there is faint circle, but you have to look for it,,ad it might be just me looking for something.

The lightning strike was odd before, and even odder now.