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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - cashel

Cragballyconoal, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - cashel, Cragballyconoal, 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
Cragballyconoal
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Fort and Cave Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Fort (1916)
Coordinates
53.05234, -9.11809
SMR number
CL005-160019-

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

In elevated rocky pasture overlooked by higher ground to the N and E with extensive views to the W. Within an extensive multiperiod field system (CL005-160001-). Hachured and named ‘Fort & Cave’ on the 1840 and 1916 OS 6-inch maps. Abutted to the S by a dwelling shown on both map editions. Described by Westropp (1899, 372) as a ‘circular stone fort … the southern segment of which has been destroyed, and the house built on its site with the material’. 

 

A subcircular cashel (28m N-S) defined by a stone wall (Wth 2.3m; max. ext. H 2.4m; max. int. H 0.4m) from SW to NE and a broad rubble bank (Wth 5-6m; H 0.9m) from NE to ESE. From ESE to SW the monument has been truncated by the construction of the adjacent dwelling leaving a low grassed-over bank of rubble (H 0.7-0.9m). There is a modern gap at the NE; the location of the original entrance is unclear. There is a souterrain (CL005-160045-) in the NW quadrant. A rectangular cashel (CL005-160017-) with a souterrain (CL005-160044-) lies c. 80m to the N.  

 

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Eve Campbell

 

Date of upload: 30 September 2025

References

Westropp, T.J. 1899 Prehistoric remains in the Burren, County Clare. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 29, 367-84.

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
All Ringfort - cashel in Clare All County Clare records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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