Ringfort - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

On a natural rise above bogland on the valley floor, with a stream running roughly E-W c. 40m to the N. There are moderate views from this location. Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 320) describes an area called 'Dhooneeach' close to Lisdowney village, with a field called the well field. This appears to be a field c. 300m NW of the village. According to Carrigan (ibid.), 'Occupying the centre of the latter field, and coming very close to the well, is a large, dismantled fort, circular in shape, and rising to a height of 4 [1.2m] or 5 ft. [1.5m] over the surrounding land; the trench or fosse that enclosed it can still be traced nearly all the way round. Some hundred years ago or so a pigeon house stood on the fort, and its erection, no doubt, had much to do with the dismantling to which the fort has been subjected. This fort is the original Dhooneeach'. The location was identified during an SMR fieldtrip in 1987, the enclosure being visible as a low rise in the field. According to the landowner a 'wet rath' to the NW of the enclosure had been cleared away. On Digitalglobe imagery (viewed 12 February 2018) two enclosures are visible N of the well, that to the NE is less clear but it is possibly the denuded circular enclosure (diam. c. 30m), while that to the NW, possibly the 'wet rath' referred to by the landowner, is square and appears to be a moated site (KK009-071----).

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 12 February 2018

References

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.