Dónal Hickey: Campaign to save monuments from accidental damage

There are more than 140,000 archaeological remains here including standing stones, castles, and ring forts — and an online map lets you check any area before starting digging work

Check Before You Dig campaign aims to raise awareness of archaeological monuments across Ireland

The majority of farmers would not damage, never mind remove, a ringfort on their land. It seems local superstitions have not changed much since the national schools’ folklore collection in the late 1930s.

A pupil of that era, Eilis Noonan, of Liscarroll, Mallow, County Cork, told of many fairy forts in her area, with people afraid to go near one, especially, after 10pm, while earth dug up in another fort in daylight was mysteriously put back at night.