Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, encompassing a natural rise, bordered to the S by an area of low-lying, wet ground, beyond which the ground rises to a low ridge. A house is located immediately to the NE.
Roughly circular area (30m E-W; c. 27m N-S) defined by a drystone wall (Wth 2.3m at SW, 2.8m at E; int. H 0.8m; ext. H 1.8m), and enclosed at SE−NW by remnants of an outer wall with an intervening gap or fosse (Wth 4-5m). The cashel has been incorporated into a later system of field walls.
The inner wall, composed of rough field stones, is of drystone construction, and is similar in appearance, though more substantial, to adjacent field walls. It is best preserved SE−SSW where sections of the external stone facing, incorporating large boulders, remain intact. Elsewhere much of the exterior wall face has collapsed to a loose tumble of stones. At NNW−NE the wall survives only as a low, sod-covered rise, bordered on its outer edge by later field walls, and at NE−SE it has been incorporated into/overlain by a later field wall.
The outer wall survives mainly as a low, sod-covered stony rise, with a basal row of large stones visible at NW. It is partly obscured by a growth of scrub. The outer wall has been levelled on the NE arc, and a house, shed and later field walls partly overlie this area.
There is no clearly defined entrance. The current access is at the W through a collapsed section of wall.
The interior appears to be at a slightly higher level in the SW quadrant, with a gentle slope down from there to the N. It is bisected, slightly S of centre, by a stone wall (Wth 0.8m; H 0.8m) on an E-W axis. The interior was used as a burial ground (MA063-028001-).
The enclosing walls are ringed with blackthorn scrub and ferns, which also encroach on the interior, especially at the S and W. The N half of the interior is relatively open and grassy.

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 9 July 2020