Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

On the SE-facing slope of a slightly raised ridge on the E side of Ballyvaughan valley, with restricted views from SW-NW, to the E and SE because of higher ground. The site is under scrub but surrounded by reclaimed pasture. Indicated and named ‘Cahernahooan’ on the 1842 ed. of the OS 6-inch map and hachured and similarly named on the 1916 ed. O’Donovan (Comber 1997, 28) gave the Irish form of the name as Cathair na h-Uamhann which he translated as ‘the caher of the cave’. Westropp (1901, 282) recorded it as ‘a small ring wall, about 100 feet across…’ and noted that its facing was unusually comprised of ‘rounded field blocks with a filling of small, rounded stones’.
A moderately well-preserved circular cashel (int. diam. 26m) defined by bank/spread (Wth 3.4-4.5m; H 0.6-0.8m) of earth and stone. Clearance stones are piled against and obscure much of the outer face; however, inner wall-facing survives at E (H 0.3m) and SSW (H 0.5m) and an original wall thickness of c. 1.7m is apparent. In Westropp’s time (ibid.), a ‘short stretch to the east… [was] about 5 feet high (1.52m), and … [was] from 5 feet to 6 feet thick (1.52-1.82m)’.
A rectangular house of indeterminate date (CL005-054003-) is located W of centre and an entrance to a souterrain (CL005-054002-) is located to the north of the house just inside the garth of the cashel.
A later field wall has been built on the line of the cashel wall and E-W walls run across its centre and across its NW sector. Westropp (ibid.) also recorded what is likely to be a saddle quern - ‘a hollowed block of limestone resembling an ancient corn-crusher’- in ‘a wall not far to the west’.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 8 June 2022

References

Westropp, T.J 1901 Prehistoric remains in north-western Clare part II. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 31, 273-91.

Comber, M. (ed.) 1997 The antiquities of County Clare: John O’Donovan and Eugene Curry: Ordnance Survey Letters 1839. Clasp Press. Ennis.