by THE DIGGER
The rath situated in the townland of
Derrykillultagh near Glenavy.
Can you spot the little
people?
THE older ordnance survey maps clearly
label a round field sited in the townland of Crew, Glenavy
as a fort.
To the bygone inhabitants who owned and
worked the land there, the round field was known as the
"forth field". The ditch that encompassed it was referred to
as the "march" in an old 1862 will of a former Crew
inhabitant. This ensured that the executors were in no doubt
as to which piece of the land was being referred to when the
land was being divided out.
We may never know the purpose of the fort
when it was constructed, but in later times it provided
grazing for cattle. Many years ago, though, the cattle
grazing there took ill and showed signs of swollen abdomens.
This was of great concern to the farmer at that time.
In those days there could of course have
been several explanations cited for this strange occurrence,
one being the fairies.
It was believed that the little people
occupied these earth works all over the land where they
danced and played their musical instruments. It could just
be that on this occasion the cattle had disturbed their
antics and they had taken some form of evasive action.
The cattle could have fallen victim to
feared "elf-shot", where the fairies used arrow heads to
injure them. Of course a nasty neighbour could have
"blinked' the cattle after a neighbourly dispute by putting
a curse on them. The "culprit" of the strange affliction was
soon discovered. The cattle had decided that the unkempt
straggly over-hanging crab apple trees would provide a
variation to their usual stable diet.
They had been munching on the fallen
fruits of these trees which bounded the forth. The farmer
would no longer have to keep looking over his shoulder for
the smaller race and treading carefully round the
neighbours. The simple answer was to cut back the trees from
the reach of the cattle. Problem solved.
Visit the Diggers new web site
www.glenavyhistory.com
Ulster Star
29/09/2006
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