Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

On a prominent steep hill, now planted with coniferous forest, overlooking an extensive multiperiod field system (CL009-001001-) to the N. Hachured and named 'Lissateeaun' on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. Labelled as 'Lios an tSidheáin' on Robinson's (1977) map - a name translated as 'Fairy Hill' in the OS Letters (1839) (Comber 1997, 71). This subtriangular rath (36.7m E-W; 27m N-S) is defined by a steep scarp from SW-SE and by a deep round-bottomed fosse (Wth 4-6m) along the S side. The fosse is 7m below the level of the summit of the platform and 2m below the surrounding ground level. The scarp may be largely natural. Westropp (1915, 48) considered the rath to have been 'shaped out of the natural bluff, but raised and rounded so as to form a high flat-topped platform sufficiently imposing as seen from the road bridge to the east.' There is a slight berm c. 10m below the scarp at N, SE and SW, and traces of a possible outer bank at NNE. The interior dips towards the SW.

The following images have been uploaded:
CL008-048----_01.jpg Aerial view from E
CL008-048----_02.jpg View from ENE

Compiled by: Olive Alcock and Conn Herriott

Date of upload: 19 October 2022

References

Robinson, T. 1977 (revised 1999) The Burren: a two-inch map of the uplands of north-west Clare. Map scale 1:31680. Roundstone: Folding Landscapes.

Westropp, T.J. 1915 Prehistoric remains (forts and dolmens) in Burren and its south western border, Co. Clare. Part 12: North Western Part. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 5, 45-62, 249-74.

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