Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

Internal diam. 21.3m N-S, 22m E-W
This severely modified caher, known locally as 'Caher-abhan', is located on a low ridge just S of the Oweveen river, a tributary of the Cummeragh. The site has been adapted for use as a sheep dip and pound by cementing over its interior, constructing several walls and rebuilding most of its internal wall-face. The original enclosing element survives best at S, where it measures 2.8m wide and 1.65m high. Here it is faced externally with flat boulder-like slabs set in rough horizontal courses. Much collapse abuts the external base of the wall. A gap at NNW, 1.5m wide, may represent the location of the original entrance. A large slab, 1.45m x .8m x .3m, lies outside it, and it was suggested by O'Connell that it originally served as an entrance lintel (KAS). O'Connell also noted two 'guard-rooms' in the bank, close to the entrance, but these are no longer apparent. At NW a number of sheepfolds and an old field boundary abut the site externally, and a second field boundary extends from the site at SE.

A 'cave' was discovered in the centre of the site when it was being cemented over (local information). No apparent surface trace of this possible souterrain (KE089-064001-) survives.

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. 587. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 29 July 2013