Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

Internal diam. 22m N-S, 24.2m E-W
This poorly preserved site is located on the crest of a ridge in rough upland terrain. Locally known as a cathair (Ó Cíobháin 1984b, 83), it consists of a circular area enclosed by a stone rampart and an external bank. The bank is traversed by a number of modern field boundaries which radiate out from the stone rampart, and is no longer extant at SE, where the remains of a nineteenth century house abut the site. The bank is composed of earth and gravel with some large stones, and averages 2.5m in basal width. It is best preserved at NE, where it achieves a maximum external height of 1.8m; elsewhere there are many gaps. Between its internal flank and the stone rampart is a berm which averages 3m wide. The rampart is best preserved at SE where it is 3m in external height, 3m wide at top and falls .6m to the interior of the site. Here it consists of internal and external facing enclosing a rubble core, with the remains of a .3m wide external plinth at base. It is poorly preserved in the W sector of the site, where the entrance may have been located. Here a blocked gap, 3.7m wide, occurs. The interior of the site is level and featureless.

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

Date of upload: 29 July 2013