Author Jo Kerrigan and photographer Richard Mills were fascinated by the wonderful echoes of the past that they saw on every side when exploring the countryside. In particular, fairy forts have always attracted their attention. One day they realised that for a country seeing as much development as Ireland, it was extraordinary how many fairy forts were left untouched. So they started researching and were amazed not only by the sheer number of them (estimated at 50,000 – it could be far more) but also by the amount of legends, stories, happenings and, most of all, firmly embedded beliefs surrounding them. It became their aim to awaken everybody’s interest, and not take these important symbols of an earlier time for granted. Here is an extract from their book Irish Fairy Forts, published by O’Brien Press.

 

You will glimpse them, perhaps by chance, as you drive along country roads. Unusual grassy circles; strange, tree-covered mounds in the centre of otherwise smoothly tilled fields; the road making a sudden and unexpected diversion around an obstacle that certainly isn’t a rock before returning to its straight route. Once you have got your eye in, so to speak, you will identify dozens of them.

Very frequently (given our gentle climate and the enthusiastic willingness of bramble and bush to swallow up anything that stands still for more than a minute), they are too overgrown for you to be certain of what you are seeing. OS maps, unfortunately, rarely show fairy forts, although megaliths and other ancient archaeological features are usually well marked.

It is a good idea to consult Google Earth (an extremely recent invention when set against the timescale involved in these features). These enigmatic earthworks stand out vividly – very clear circular formations in our otherwise squared and fenced environment. They are also often still clearly visible amid the gorse and bushes of wilder upland slopes.

Enormous numbers of fairy forts survive across Ireland. Somewhere between 45,000 and 60,000 is a very rough estimate, but in all probability there are many more, given the speed with which our lush vegetation covers up everything.
However, advances in modern technology allow us to scan the landscape (and below it) more and more, and with considerably more accuracy than was ever possible heretofore, so the figure is likely to increase exponentially as ever more work is done.

Don’t confuse fairy forts with fairy rings, which are circles of mushrooms or fungi that spring up overnight, seemingly by magic, and last a very short time. They are said to mark places where the fairies have been dancing the night before. Temporary and delightful, they should be noted and enjoyed. However, don’t venture into one, as that carries risks.

“I remember going out one morning and finding three large perfect circles of mushrooms in a field near us at home,” recalls Gobnait, who grew up in north Offaly.

“They were only in that one field, nowhere else. I went home and told my father, and he immediately said, ‘You didn’t step inside one, did you?’ I said no, and he said, relieved, ‘Oh, that’s good. You might find you were in another place or another time altogether, and never be able to leave it again.’ ” It’s a widespread belief.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own