TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - cashel

Rannagh West, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - cashel, Rannagh West, 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
Rannagh West
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured (1916)
Coordinates
53.03910, -9.10317
SMR number
CL010-004----

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)

Get directions ↗

This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

On the SW shoulder of a ridge in good, rocky grassland with a steep rocky cliff to the W, good views from NE-WNW. Within an extensive multiperiod field system (CL005-160001-). Hachured on the 1840 and 1916 eds. of the OS 6-inch maps. Described by Westropp (1898, 361) as a ’rectangular caher’ with ‘straight and regularly coursed walls’ and with a gateway in the S lined with ‘stone gate posts’.

A roughly square cashel (ext. dims. 32.5m N-S; 33m E-W; int. dims. 29m N-S; 28m E-W) defined by a partially collapsed drystone wall. The partially collapsed N wall has outer stone facing (H 2m) visible in the centre and towards the E end and is reduced in height towards the E and W ends. Elsewhere the N wall is reduced to a stone spread (T 3.3-3.8m; int. H 0.4-1.2m) with a later pen incorporated into it close to the centre. The outer facing of the E wall (Wth 2m; max. H 1.4m in W) is low with low inner facing (H 0.25m) visible at the S end. The inner face of the E wall has collapsed to a spread of rubble and the N side of an opening is visible near the centre. The stone facing at the E end of the S wall (ext. H 1.6m; int. H 0.7m; T 1.7m) is well preserved and the W end is reduced to a stony spread. A gap (Wth 1.3m) in the centre of the S wall is lined with jambstones (H 0.93-1m) and a build-up of stone to the E of this gap may be a collapsed structure. The W wall is practically levelled throughout though a short stretch of outer facing (H 1.6m) is visible at the N end. The interior of the cashel is stony and uneven and a house site (CL010-004002-) lies near the centre. The partial remains of a later structure are visible against the outside of the E wall.

The following item has been uploaded:
CL010-004----_01.jpg Entrance at S from the exterior.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Lynda McCormack

Date of upload: 15 June 2022

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
See your own family's places on a living map