Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Ringfort - cashel
Roughaun, County Clare, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Roughaun
- County
- Clare
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Cahermore
- Latest-edition OS map
- Cahermore (1916)
- Coordinates
- 52.97728, -9.11468
- SMR number
- CL016-052001-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Near the bottom of a S-facing slope with good views to the E, SE and W. Hachured and named ‘Cahermore’ on the 1840 and 1916 OS 6-inch maps. Listed as ‘enclosure’ in the RMP (1996). O’Donovan (Comber 1997, 15) recorded it in 1839, as ‘Cahirmore’ and ‘of thirty six yards in diameter, built of very large well shaped stones, the walls in some places seven feet high on the outside having a considerable batter or taper, and eight feet thick at the top (at height of seven feet)’ and opined that it was ‘the most remarkable’ of several cashels in the parish (ibid., 21). The souterrain was open in his time, but inaccessible ‘on account of the narrowness of the passage’ (ibid., 15). Westropp (1896, 367-8) described it as built ‘of finely fitted masonry’, with a visible outer face and a damaged inner face. He recorded the souterrain as ‘closed’ (Westropp 1900, 407).
A well-preserved roughly circular cashel (ext. dims. 36.8m NE-SW) defined by a drystone wall (at S: Wth 2.1-2.3m; int. H 0.6m; ext. H 1.2m) and a spread of collapsed stone (Wth c. 6-7m; H 0.6-1m) with no visible entrance. The outer wall-face is generally visible, and the inner face is partially visible. In the SW, part of the wall has been rebuilt and a cell has been built on the wall at S. The interior slopes to the SW and a blocked up souterrain (CL016-052003-) is visible in the SE sector.
The site of a tau cross (CL016-052002-) and cross fragment (CL016-052004-) are located c. 37m to the N and the site of a gateway (CL016-050----) is located c. 77m to the NW.
Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Lynda McCormack
Date of upload: 11 May 2022
References
Westropp, T.J. 1900 Excursions of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Summer meeting, 1900. Description of the places visited. Section III. Third excursion; Section IV. Fourth Excursion. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 10, 392-419; 420-26.
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.
Nearby in the register
- Souterrainunder 1 mi
- Cross - Tau crossunder 1 mi
- Crossunder 1 mi
- Gatewayunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.