Promontory fort - coastal

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a large wide peninsula the site is one of hilly bog and the view from the site along the coastline is good, with a smaller promontory fort (MA006-010-----) visible to the south. The promontory fort is overlooked by higher ground to the S and is totally surrounded by sheer cliffs. The broad headland measures 500m wide by 220m and is long was cut off from the mainland by a natural fault running across the isthmus.

The narrow neck 80m wide flanked by a chasm on either side which is defended by a straight stone wall built on an earthen bank with an external fosse. This wall is in poor condition, surviving only to a height of 1.2m. A 12m wide entrance way flanked with jambstones can be seen near the western edge, although it has been partly blocked up leaving a gap now only 2m wide. The wall is drystone built and its inner face along the east has fallen away. This wall is built on a 6m wide grassed-over mound of earth and stone, but it is not clear how much of the mound consists of collapse from the wall. A sub-rectangular drystone built enclosure stands immediately to the S and E of the entrance gap. It abutts the wall and has a small doorway in the south-west corner. The enclosure was not noted by Westropp in his description of the site (1912a, 116-8) and may be recent. A 6m wide 1.5m deep fosse runs along the outside of the wall. A causeway crosses it at the entrance, and slabs along its inner face suggest it was revetted. Much collapse from the wall lies in the base of the fosse. There are clear traces of a counterscarp bank, 12m wide rising 1m above the level of the field. This runs along the eastern half of the fosse.

The interior is wet and boggy. It undulates and slopes down to the N with several puffing holes visible near the northern cliff edge. Traces of a grassed over collapsed wall bisecting the interior are still visible. On a rise near the western end of the site stands a 1m high circular mound, 10m in diameter (MA006-001002-). The circular hut-sites described by Westropp are not clearly visible from the ground, but traces of about fifteen can be seen from the air. The defences across the neck have deteriorated since first noted by Brown (1893-6, 641) and Westropp. Westropp mentioned that the wall had been repaired in 1865 by the then owner, so it is not clear how original the extant wall is. The site is not marked as an antiquity on the OS maps.

These descriptions are derived from the MA thesis of Markus Casey 1999 The coastal promontory forts of Ireland. A survey of counties Sligo, Mayo, Galway and Clare. Unpublished MA thesis, National University of Ireland, Galway. In this instance the entry has been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 5 December 2018