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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
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured (1916)
Coordinates
53.05510, -9.11587
SMR number
CL005-160020-

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 surrounded by level ground with restricted views and within an extensive multiperiod field system (CL005-160001-). Hachured on the 1840 and 1916 OS 6-inch maps. Noted by Westropp (1899, 372) as one of three ‘nearly-levelled cahers’ in the S of Cragballyconoal townland. A subcircular cashel (38m N-S; 34m E-W) defined by a partially collapsed cashel wall. The outer wall-facing survives around most of the monument and is highest to the E (H 0.7m). The inner wall-facing survives intermittently and is highest to WSW (H 0.8m). The cashel is bisected by a tall drystone wall shown on the 1916 OS map and aligned N-S, with breaches on either side of this wall. The position of the original entrance is unclear. The interior is flat and contains a souterrain (CL005-160046-) to the E of the bisecting wall. Three small irregular drystone enclosures abut the E external wall of the cashel, and a subrectangular enclosure depicted on the 1916 ed. OS map abuts its W side. A large subrectangular enclosure (CL005-160052-) abuts the N side of the cashel. 
 

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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