Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

Prominently sited (on the 700' contour) in mixed rough pasture and limestone pavement, commanding wide views out E-SSW, and within a large multiperiod field system (CL010-064001-). Hachured and labelled ‘Mohernacartan’ on the OS 25-inch plan (1897) and on the later, Cassini edition (1920) of the OS 6-inch map. Named ‘Mothair na Ceartán’ on Robinson’s map of the Burren (1977). This suboval cashel (c. 46m NW-SE; c. 32.5m NE-SW) is defined by a double-faced stone wall (Wth 2.5m; int. H 0.5-0.7m; av. ext. H 1m; max. ext. H 2.7m at NE) of generally large, weathered limestone blocks with smaller stones used as packing. Most stones are laid on end but some are set vertically in the wall. Westropp (1896, 365) found the wall standing up to 3m high and wide, and he noted the use of large ‘header blocks’ (L 1.22-2.13m; Wth 0.76m; H 0.76m). A good portion of the enclosing wall is built on large sheets of rock outcrop. The original outer wall-face survives in most places. The entrance (Wth 2m) is at the NNW. There is another clear break (Wth 2.2m) in the wall at the ENE, with a wall (H 1.3m) extending from its inner edge into the cashel interior. Many stones are strewn down the steep slope outside this gap. There is a souterrain (CL010-064082-) in the NNW sector of the generally level interior. There are also several modern animal pens around the edges, against the cashel wall. Later walls radiate from the cashel at the N, ESE, SW and NNW. The wall at the N may be ancient, and potentially associated with the cashel entrance.

This cashel may be the ‘field called Garraidh na Ceártan’ associated with Lon Mac Loimhtha, the mythological smith of the Tuatha Dé Danann, according to a local folkloric tradition recorded in 1839 in the OS Letters (Comber 1997, 21-23; see also Westropp 1895).

Reference: Westropp, T.J. 1895 The Cow Legend of Corofin, Co. Clare. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 5, 227-229.

See attached image: CL010-064035-_01.JPG Aerial view from N, March 2007 (Photo. Markus Casey)

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott

Date of upload: 12 May 2023

References

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

Westropp, T.J. 1896 Prehistoric stone forts of northern Clare, parts I & II. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries 26, 142-58, 362-9.

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.