Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

At the S edge of a plateau, overlooking the W end of the Kilcorney Valley, within a multiperiod field system (CL009-255---). Depicted as a circular enclosure named ‘Liscolmanbara’ on the 1842 ed. of the OS 6-inch map; a N-S running field boundary clipped its E limits. Indicated and named ‘Lios Colmáin Bháire’ on Robinson’s map (1977). Only the basal course of the fern and grass-covered wall (Wth at N 1.8m; H 0.2–1.1m) of this cashel, which is defined by a D-shaped platform (28.3m E–W; 28m N–S), survives. The outer wall-face is visible all round and is best preserved from S to WSW. The inner wall-face is not clear and is generally flush with the interior. A later drystone wall has been built over the outer wall-face from WSW to NE. The field boundary shown on the 1842 ed. of the OS map to the E is still extant. Grass-covered mound walls abut it at N and SW. According to a local tradition recorded in 1839 by John O’Donovan, Ordnance Survey Letters (Comber 1997, 76), the name of the cashel derives from St Colman Baire who lived here, while a low mound (CL009-024----) c. 280m to the SSE was believed to mark the remains of a church dedicated to him (ibid.).

Compiled by: Olive Alcock and Conn Herriott

Date of upload: 17 December 2021

References

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

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.