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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Promontory fort - inland

Poulnabrone, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Promontory fort - inland, Poulnabrone, 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
Poulnabrone
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Cahercashlaun
Latest-edition OS map
Cahercashlaun (1916)
Coordinates
53.05646, -9.13325
SMR number
CL005-153----

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 a natural promontory in elevated largely scrub-covered pasture with clear views in all directions and within a multiperiod field system (CL005-227004-). The NW and S sides of the monument run along a sheer limestone cliff, falling to a ravine below. Indicated and named ‘Cahercashlaun’ on the 1839 and 1916 OS 6-inch maps. A suboval area (51m NE-SW; 27m NNW-SSE) defined by a drystone wall (ext. H 0.5-2.6m; int. H 1-2m; Wth 1-1.2m). The wall is best preserved at NNE and is lowest from SW to NNW. Westropp (1899, 377-8) noted a gateway in the E side of the monument. The interior is flat and contains a souterrain (CL005-153002-) NW of centre. Westropp’s plan of the site (ibid., 376) shows enclosures abutting its E wall, but they are now covered in vegetation. The monument is impacted by encroaching hazel scrub. The enclosure is depicted on the OS maps as extending to the E (c. 28m NE-SW; c. 30m NW-SE). On inspection in 1998 this area was completely concealed by vegetation. Westropp described this ‘lower’ E area as ‘surrounded by a coarsely built wall of much larger blocks than the upper fort, many being 6 feet [1.8m] long; in parts the wall is 5 and 6 feet high [1.5-1.8m] … The entrance was through a regular cleft, sloping upwards through the crag-ledge; it was about 4 feet [1.2m] wide, roofed by lintels, now fallen’. 
 

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Eve Campbell

 

Date of upload: 21 October 2025

References

Westropp, T.J. 1899 Prehistoric remains in the Burren, County Clare. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 9, 367-384.

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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