Linear earthwork

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at the bottom of a S-facing slope and on the N bank of an E-W section of the Fane River. It almost connects with the stream at its W end. It is depicted as a linear feature (L c. 80m E-W) on the 1834 edition of the OS 6-inch map and as a bank with a fosse on its N side on the 1907 edition and it is described as the site of an ‘Ancient Entrenchment’ on both. It was described in 1968 (SMR file) as an overgrown bank (L 84.5m) bank that was larger at the E end (Wth of base 11.4m; Wth of top 3.5m; H at S 4.5m; H at N 2.6m) with a fosse (at E: Wth of top 10.7m; Wth of base 4m; ext. D 4m) on the N side. It declined almost to nothing at the W end and faint traces of the bank extended further E (L c. 27m). It had been removed by 1995 (OSAP), and Ó Drisceoil (2017, 32) thinks it may have been a promontory fort because of its proximity to the river.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 27 February 2018

References

OSAP - Ordnance Survey Aerial Photographs. Photographic collection. Ordnance Survey of Ireland. Dublin.

SMR file - Sites and monuments record files in the National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2017 ‘An Endless Tunnel under the Earth' : The Black Pig's Dyke in County Monaghan. In Patrick J. Duffy (ed.) Monaghan History and Society, 17-47. Dublin, Geography Publications