Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

In reclaimed farmland. Marked on the 1838 edition of the OS 6-inch map as a roughly subcircular enclosure (c. 40m NW-SE; c. 36m NE-SE). On the OS 1:2500 plan (surveyed 1912-16) it is indicated by a line of hachures from SE to NW that suggest it was subrectangular in plan. McCaffrey (1952, 195, no. 70) described it as being ‘very obscure’ and noted a ‘structure 42’ x 24’ [12.5m x 7.3m]’ which suggested that it may have been a house site rather that a 'fort'. He also noted that a modern field wall crossed part of it and that a famine road, which was built immediately to its N, probably explained the ‘destruction’ of the site. Locally the monument was regarded as ‘an old ruin of house’. No visible surface trace survives.

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of upload: 25 July 2019

References

McCaffrey, P. 1952 A contribution to the archaeology of the barony of Dunkellin, Co. Galway. Unpublished MA thesis, National University of Ireland, Galway.