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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - cashel

Poulcaragharush, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - cashel, Poulcaragharush, 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
Poulcaragharush
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured (1916)
Coordinates
53.02926, -9.13176
SMR number
CL009-036001-

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 an undulating ridge extending NE from a plateau in rough pasture within a large multiperiod field system (CL009-032001-), with level ground S–W and sloping away in other directions. Hachured on both the first (1842) and Cassini (1920) editions of the OS 6-inch map. Labelled ‘Cathrach an Rois’ on Robinson’s map of the Burren (1977). This irregularly rectilinear cashel (L 34.4m NE–SW; Wth 29.8m NW–SE) is defined by a stone wall (est. Wth at N c. 3.4m; int. H 0.4–0.9m; ext. H. 0.4–1.5m) which has mostly collapsed to form a stone spread which is less substantial at SE and SW (Wth 3–4.6m; int. H 0.4–0.7m; ext. H 0.3–0.7m) but more substantial elsewhere (Wth 6–7m; int. H 0.4–0.9m; ext. H 0.4–1m). The outer wall-face is best preserved at NE and NW (H 1.5m), where small horizontally laid stones (L 0.5m; H 0.2m) are visible. The wall-face has a straighter edge at NW, but this may be due to later re-building.

The cashel appears to have been in a dilapidated state when described by Westropp (1898, 362): ‘poorly built and levelled within a foot or two of the ground.’ Later drystone walls (Wth c. 0.7m; H c. 1.1m) are built over the cashel wall at NW, SE and SW. A N–S wall footing (L 12.5m) extends through the NW sector of the interior.

A possible enclosure (CL009-036004-) lies c. 25m to the S.

 

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott

 

Date of upload: 1-10-2025

References

Westropp, T.J. 1898 Prehistoric remains in the Burren, County Clare (Carran and Kilcorney). The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 28, 352-66.

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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