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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - cashel

Ballyelly, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - cashel, Ballyelly, County Clare, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Ballyelly
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Indicated (1915)
Coordinates
53.09932, -9.27024
SMR number
CL004-016019-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

On the high W-facing slopes of a hill with commanding views from SW to N and within an extensive multiperiod field system (CL004-016001-). Indicated on the 1840 and 1915 OS 6-inch maps. Listed as ‘enclosure’ in the RMP (1996).

A well-preserved roughly circular cashel (ext. dims. 27.2m N-S; 24.7m E-W; int. dims. 20.5m N-S; 18.2m E-W) defined by a drystone wall (T 2.6m at W; T 3.9m at E; ext. H 0.3-1.75m) which is collapsed at SSE. The outer wall-face survives (H 2m in SSW) and is frequently concealed by collapsed masonry. The inner wall-face is best preserved from S to SW (H 1.2m) and less well preserved from SW to WNW. There is less internal collapse along the perimeter of the cashel from NE to ESE than elsewhere. There is a lintled gap in the cashel wall in the WNW (ext. Wth 0.6m; int. Wth 0.4m; H 0.4m; T 1.85m) and a continuation of this feature into the interior of the cashel is indicated by a shallow trench which may be part of a souterrain. In the E quadrant of the interior, the low wall foundations of a subrectangular house of indeterminate date (CL004-016033-) abut the perimeter of the cashel wall. A low, later wall sits on top of this feature. An irregular spread of stones in the SSW may indicate a collapsed second structure. Outside of the cashel and along the perimeter in the SSE, a structure which is now used as an animal pen may have been a contemporary house site. Stone walls abut the cashel wall at W, N and E.

The following image has been uploaded:
CL004-016019-_01.jpg View of cashel from ESE.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Lynda McCormack

Date of upload: 9 August 2022

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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