School: Leamh-choill
- Location:
- Drumsillagh, Co. Roscommon
- Teacher: Cáit Ní Ghadhra
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0232, Page 132
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Leamh-choill
- XML Page 132
- XML “Fairy Forts”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- There are three forts in this district, situated in the townlands of Cootehill, Clooncoose and Drumsillagh. They are all circular in shape and they are surrounded by trees.
Two of them are surrounded by trees and a ditch and the third has no ditch but it is at least four feet higher than the ground around it. It is surrounded by thorn and hazel trees.
There is no entrance to any of these forts, as they are not tunnelled under the ground. There may be some connection between the fort in Laughill and the tunnell. There is a gap in the north western side of each fort. They are all built on the driest portion of elevated ground around them.
They are supposed to have been built by the first race of people who inhabited Ireland as a protection from wild animals. All the cattle of the district were gathered into the forts at night and watched by a few trusted people. When the wild animals died out in Ireland, the forts were no longer needed and the cattle were allowed to graze undisturbed. The Luatha de-sanam or fairies are believed to have taken possession of them then.
The most 'important' fort is at the back of Tom Regans in Kilmacarril. It is said that the fairies are very much alive here. They often borrowed salt from the farmer's wives, also potatoes and flour. They warn Tom when an animal is sick and they light up the outhouses for him. These fairies often visit 'Aorans" fort.
