Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

On the highest point of Inis Meáin. This oval cashel (N-S 69m; E-W 35m) is a Nat. Mon. known locally as Dún Chonchúir. Defined by a massive, but much-restored, drystone rampart with up to three levels of terracing and interconnecting steps internally. Entrance at ENE. Traces of an outer rampart (N-S 110m), also terraced, exist from NW to SW but are absent at W where the inner rampart runs along the edge of a low cliff. A subrectangular annexe (NNW-SSE 23.2m; ENE-WSW 16.3m) partly overlies the outer rampart at NE; probably a later forework to protect the entrance (now destroyed) through outer rampart. There are a number of clochans (GA119-054001-) in the interior. (O'Flanagan 1927a, Vol. 3, 107, 201, 252-61, 404-5; Westropp 1895, 267; Anon. 1886a, 301)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993).

Date of upload: 05 August 2010

This monument was taken into Ownership under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 - National Monument 42.

References

Anon. 1886a Antiquities of the Aran Islands, County of Galway. The Irish Builder, July 1886, 196-7, 301.

Westropp, T.J. 1895 Proceedings: Aran Islands. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 25, 250-74.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Mayo collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1838. Bray.