Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

In hazel and rough pasture at the N edge of a plateau overlooking Poulacarran Valley, with land sloping steeply to N and gently to W. Hachured on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. Listed as ‘Enclosure’ in the RMP (1996). This subrectangular cashel (26.3m N-S; 23.3m E-W) is defined by a stone wall (Wth c. 1.2-2.1m; int. H c. 0.3-0.5m; ext. H 0.2-1.2m) with rounded corners. The outer wall-face is traceable all around. The stones are large (max. L 1m; Wth 0.5m; H 0.3m) and laid in random courses. Westropp (1898, 359) had described this a ‘coarse thin ring-wall’, but a souterrain (CL009-079002-) is built within the wall, near the W end of the N side. The lower part of the outer wall-face and the entire inner wall-face are covered by stone spill (total Wth 5-7m; H 0.2-0.5m). A later drystone wall (H c. 1m) is built over the cashel perimeter. At W this later wall curves into the cashel interior, at a point where the original wall had collapsed. The interior appears to slope from N toward the centre. A house of indeterminate date (CL009-079003-) overlies the interior wall spill at N.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott

Date of upload: 12 April 2022

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.