Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a narrow N-S shelf on the W side of the Caher valley, c. 240m W of the Caher River, in extensively reclaimed pastureland. Hachured and named ‘Caherbullog’ on the 1840 and 1916 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. According to Westropp (1901, 15-16), it and another cashel (CL004-016025-) in the same townland—referred to as the ‘two Caherbollucks’—were surrendered to the Government by Sir Tirlagh O’Brien, before being regranted to him in 1583.

A subcircular cashel (34.4m N-S; 32.6m E-W) defined by a very substantial drystone wall (Wth 5.2m at W; max. H 1.6m at S, over collapse and field clearance piled at outer base) with at least one additional face hidden within the wall. Field clearance is piled up against the outer wall and in the interior, making further inspection impossible. An entrance is probably preserved beneath the rubble. Later field walls radiate off the perimeter at NE and SE.
The thickness of the wall and the internal face hidden within it morphologically link this site to the ‘Western Stone Forts’, such as those on the Aran islands (Cotter 2012) and elsewhere on the Burren (e.g. Ballykinvarga fort CL009-059012- and Cahercommaun fort CL010-064003-).

Compiled by: Mary Tunney, Olive Alcock and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 28 September 2021

References

Cotter, C. 2012 The western stone forts project. Excavations at Dún Aonghasa and Dún Eoghanachta. 2 vols. Dublin. Wordwell Ltd.

Westropp, T.J 1901 Prehistoric remains in north-western Clare, part I. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 31, 1-17.