Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture on the S-facing slope of an E-W ridge on the S edge of a shallow ravine aligned E-W with rising ground to the N. Hachured on the 1842 and 1916 OS 6-inch maps and named ‘Caherscreebeen’ on the latter. According to folk tradition it was ‘one of the richest forts in Ireland: it had a room full of gold, another of deer’s tallow, and a third of “beor lochlanagh,” or Dane’s beer’ (Westropp 1896, 368).

A subcircular cashel (ext. dims. 41.5m E-W; 41.4m N-S) defined by a thick two-phase stone wall comprising an inner wall-face, a primary outer wall-face (H 1m) and a secondary outer wall-face (H 1.3m) with a rubble core. The inner wall-face is concealed by collapse and the inner wall is represented by a stone spread (Wth 2-2.5m) which is widest to the W (Wth 7m). The primary outer wall-face (original ext. dims. 33.3m E-W, c. 34.2m) is traceable only intermittently from N to S, being clearest between NE and ESE and between SW and W. A secondary outer wall-face defines the outer wall (Wth 3.6-4.8m; H 3-3.4m) and can be traced around most of the circumference of the monument. No clear entrance thorough either wall is visible, although both walls are lowest to the E, suggesting a possible location. An animal path crosses the walls at ESE. The interior of the cashel is level with the top of the walls. The cashel contains a house site (CL016-020038-) and a souterrain (CL016-020037-). Westropp (1900-2, 431) noted that the cashel had ‘traces of enclosures, and two souterrains’ and he included two ‘caves’ in his plan (1913, 255). He did not mention a second souterrain in his main description of the site (1896, 368). As the two ‘caves’ on his plan are fairly close together it may represent another part of the one souterrain noted on inspection in 1997. Four low field boundaries run N-S across the cashel garth, one of which overlies the house site.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Eve Campbell

Date of upload: 28 March 2023

References

Westropp, T.J. 1913 Prehistoric remains (forts and dolmens) in the Corofin district, Co. Clare (no. 11). Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries 43, 232-60.

Westropp, T.J. 1900-02 The cahers of county Clare: their names, features, and bibliography. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Series 3, vol. 6, 415-49.

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.