Promontory fort - coastal

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the southern shore of the island 700m SW of the main harbour. This stretch of coast is bounded by low cliffs, and the promontory is flanked to W by a jagged cove and to E by a small boulder beach. The promontory fort is overlooked by higher ground on the landward side. It is named ‘Doon Cloak’ in Roman script on first edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1840), in contrast to the later editions, which attach the words ‘Site of’. The name is noted by Mac Neill (1913, no. 151, 27) and by Ó Muraíle (1999, 109, 112, 123).

The fort occupies a large, natural sea promontory, roughly rectangular in outline, whose long axis lies roughly E–W, parallel to the mainland. It is connected to the latter by a narrow grassy neck at its north-eastern end. Saddle-like in profile, this neck slopes downwards from the landward (N) side, narrowing to 5m wide before rising sharply to S, towards the promontory summit. At its outer end, it is partially cut across by a well-defined and slightly curving fosse, running roughly E–W. Although impressive at its eastern end (Wth 2.8m, D 2m), where it runs out onto the boulder beach, the fosse decreases in scale west- wards. It finally peters out after 14.2m, leaving a 3m-wide gap for access to the promontory. The fosse is flanked externally by a slight bank (Wth 0.8m × H 0.3m max. at W end) and internally by a low, partially faced drystone wall (Wth 0.6m × H 0.2m max. at W end). Both the bank and wall peter out towards E end of the fosse. The steep sides of the fosse and character of the flanking bank and wall suggest that they are all of recent origin. In this regard, it is perhaps significant that none of the above-mentioned features is mentioned in Westropp’s descriptions (1911a,17, 22–3; 1914, 326): however, the fosse is clearly visible in a sketch of ‘Doon Cloak’ made by him in 1909 (Westropp 1911b, 265 Pl. II). In his more detailed description (1911a, 22), Westropp records it as being ‘only slightly fenced by a mound of earth and stones at the summit of the neck, and eastwards along the face’. This feature still survives as a grassy N-facing scarp (H 0.8m) at the break of slope where the steeply rising neck reaches the promontory summit. A number of large boulders deeply bedded in its face suggest that it may once have been revetted.

The promontory itself is composed of a mass of rock with a soil cap of varying depth that sup- ports a rich grassy sward. Along the southern or seaward side this soil has been eroded away, exposing a large area of bedrock. The grassy summit (E–W c. 65m, N–S c. 25m) is remarkably smooth underfoot and its western half is almost level: the eastern half slopes gently to E. It is defined on all sides by grassy scarps, probably all natural. The ‘traces of a bank running along the southern and western edges’ noted by Casey (1999, 142, Mayo 45), were not found.

The above description is derived from: New Survey of Clare Island. Volume 5: Archaeology. Edited by Paul Gosling, Conleth Manning and John Waddell. (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. 2007). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated.

Date of upload: 29 November 2018

References

MacNeill, J. 1913 Clare Island Survey: placenames and family names. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 31 (1911-15), section 1, part 3, 1-42.

Westropp, T.J. 1911 Sketches in Ireland. Vol. 7 1904–10. Part of a manuscript collection of field drawings bound into seven volumes (c. 1880–1910). Royal Irish Academy Library, ref. 3 A 46-52. Dublin.

ó Muraille, N. 1999 The place-names of Clare Island. In C. Mac Cárthaigh and K. Whelan (eds) New Survey of Clare Island. Volume 1: history and cultural landscape, 99-141. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy

Gosling, P., Manning, C. and Waddell, J. (eds.) 2007 New Survey of Clare Island, Volume 5: Archaeology. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy.

Casey, M. 1999 The coastal promontory forts of Ireland. A survey of counties Sligo, Mayo, Galway and Clare. Unpublished MA thesis, National University of Ireland, Galway.

Westropp, T.J. 1911 Clare Island survey: history and archaeology. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 31, Section 1, Part 2, 1-78.