Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

Internal diam. 22m
Three cashels (KE054-076----, KE054-075---- and KE054-069----) are grouped fairly closely together in rough open moorland on the steep S slopes of Sea Hill, overlooking Dingle Bay. Un-enclosed clochauns also occur in the same area, much of which was formerly enclosed by a system of field walls which are now almost completely ruined. The enclosing wall of this cashel consisted of a rubble core faced externally and probably internally also with large stones set upright or on edge or laid horizontally in rough courses, but little now remains. The entrance faces due E. A 2nd entrance passage may be secondary as it provides access to the modern sheep-fold which occupies the NW part of the interior.
The sheep-fold measures 7.3m N-S x 7.9m E-W internally and its NW side is built on top of the foundations of the cashel wall. Directly NE of the entrance is a drystone corbelled cell built into the cashel wall. It measures 2.9m in diameter externally, but there is now no means of access and the internal shape and dimensions could not be determined. Its entrance may have been blocked-up when the sheep-fold wall was constructed. The interior of a similar structure, located directly NE of the 1st, is visible due to collapse of the roof. It is 2.65m in diameter internally and its wall averages 1.75m in height. The lintelled doorway at SE is .94m high and .51m wide but is now blocked up. An inward curve of both the cashel wall and overlying sheep-fold wall, directly SW of the sheep-fold entrance, may represent a 3rd similar structure. These may have been wall chambers or clochauns associated with the cashel, which were later possibly re-used as sheep-shelters and eventually blocked-up.
A mound of stones, c. 3.1m in external diameter, in the centre of the cashel may represent the remains of a hut site or of a sheep-shelter. Another small mound of stones abuts the cashel wall at SW.
Directly E of the cashel are the ruined foundations of a large rectangular structure measuring 13m N-S x 5m E-W. Internally it is divided by cross-walls into 3 sections. Between its S end and the cashel wall is a circular foundation, c. 2m in diameter, its wall reduced to a single course of small stones. An irregular heap of stones lies directly E of the S end of the rectangular structure. It is not clear what these structures represent and whether or not they are contemporary with the cashel.

The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 559. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 7 August 2013