Another one is called Fairy Fort. One of the most common archaeological remains, the countryside is littered with ring forts, known colloquially as "fairy forts" (although I once came across an example of the dreaded "spell-check" which rendered "ring fort" as "ringworm"!). This superstition enabled the survival of the sites. The word "lios" is generally accepted to mean the inside area of the structure. "Rath" is another term for the same thing. These words feature, not surprisingly, in many placenames in Ireland. Many of our traditions concerning visits to places of special interest involve walking "déiseal", or sunwise, i.e. clockwise, in the pre-clock tyranny, around the structure.
Fairy Fort
I stumbled on a fairy fort
on an October hill
with the wind making
seashore noises
in a holly tree
the shape of a peacock.
It turned from
a brambly hedge
to a green and amber
bowl of mysteries
and whispers
with one step up on a flame of quartz.
Inside was just as wild,
the flailing, rusty fringes
Mexican-waving no shelter,
the sky a frosted pane
and a tumble of crows,
the fox-red bracken
feathering the chocolate rabbit-holes.
I circled the lios
three times, sunwise
and nothing happened.
Or maybe I emerged into a
World forever changed
by my stumbling, foolhardy actions.
