Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

Overall diam. 31m N-S, 30.8m E-W
Caher-na-Cath/Cathair na gCat: This poorly preserved site is the most northerly of a group of three cahers located between the estuary of the Valencia river and Cooncrome Harbour. The other two sites are Leacanabuaile (KE079-016----) and Cahergal (KE079-024----), both of which have been excavated and conserved. The land in the immediate vicinity of Caher-na-Cath, boggy pasture broken by outcropping, slopes down to SW and W. The caher is built on a natural platform, close to the upper edge of a low cliff on its W side. The edges of its very dilapidated enclosing bank are not well-defined, merging with external ground level, and, internally, with the outlines of three huts. At S the bank survives as a 5m wide stony spread. A wall, carefully built with thin slabs, runs adjacent to the site at W and may have been constructed using stones from the enclosing bank. The original entrance to the site may have been located at SSE, where there is a 2.4m wide gap defined by a number of upright slabs. A modern trackway skirts the site at E and S, and a short stretch of stone facing is preserved on the external face of the bank at NE.
Three collapsed, sod-covered huts occupy the interior of the caher. Internal stone facing is visible in the roughly oval-shaped hut at E (KE079-011001-), which has internal dimensions of 7.6m x 5.4m. A shallow circular depression in the centre of its floor is locally reputed to be the entrance to a souterrain (KE079-011002-). (KE079-011003-) This is situated just N of KE079-011001, and is joined to it by a band of stone collapse. Stone facing is again visible in its interior, which measures 4.8m in diameter. A narrow entrance, .6m wide, occurs at SW. The circular, stone-faced foundations of hut (KE079-011004-) are located in the site's SW quadrant, interrupting the line of the enclosing feature here. The hut has an internal diameter of 5.4m, and there is a 1.7m wide entrance gap at SE. Its walls survive .4m high and are 2m wide.

The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 601. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 29 July 2013