Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

In coastal pasture, located on top of a rocky knoll. The knoll forms a peak on rocky spur projecting NW from a higher, cliff-faced ridge which overlooks the enclosure at S. At SE and W, the spur overlooks, and is partly flanked by, two lakes, and to N a flat, lowlying expanse of damp pasture/salt marsh stretches to substantial dunes, which intervene between it and the sea.
This cashel is not shown on the 1838 and 1919 OS 6-inch maps. It consists of an oval area (18.5m NW−SE; 13.5m NE−SW) enclosed by a ruined drystone wall. The cashel encompasses the full available space on the top of the knoll, with a steep fall of ground immediately outside the cashel wall at NE−ESE and at SW−NW. At SE and NW the slope is more gradual, where the rocky spine of the spur serves as a natural access route to the cashel.
The enclosing wall is evident as a low jumble (Wth 2-3m; H 0.6m) of large stones, slumping into the interior and spreading down the external slope of the knoll. The lowermost 2-3 courses (H 0.3-55m) of the external wall face remain in situ along the S-SW arc, with short sections also visible intermittently at W−NW, and at N−NNE. The internal wall face is not evident. The original width of the wall may have been 1.8-2m. There is no clearly defined entrance feature, but narrow breaks in the wall at SE and NW line up with spine of the spur, and are obvious locations for original entrance ways.
The interior is split level: just inside the wall at SW−W is a rough terrace (Wth 2m) of higher ground defined by an irregular scarp (H 0.4-0.5m), which slopes down to the main expanse of level interior space. The terrace is covered by grass and ferns, and feels stony underfoot; it is not possible to determine whether it is a built feature, the result of wall collapse, or simply a seam of bedrock.
Immediately outside the cashel at SE, and just to N of the possible entrance gap, a grass-covered rise (Wth 0.8m), possibly remnants of a wall, extends from the external face of the cashel wall to SE along the spine of the spur. It is a barely discernible, traceable for c. 4-5m. A low grass-covered bank (Wth 1.5m; H 0.2-0.3m), bordered on each side by a shallow ditch, is evident at the top edge of the spur at a point 8-9m ESE of the cashel. It extends downslope for several meters to WSW in a shallow arc, petering out at the base of the slope. While this feature could be taken as an outer enclosing element contemporary with the cashel, it may be much later in date, possibly an isolated cultivation ridge utilising a relatively stone-free part of the rocky slope. Elsewhere, tracts of relict cultivation ridges, now barely discernible, fill every pocket of cultivatable ground on the slopes of the spur and in the surrounding rocky landscape. They are most likely 18th/19th-century in date, associated with a cluster of houses shown c. 200m SW of the cashel on the 1838 OS 6-inch map. Immediately to W of the cashel, rock outcropping at the W end of the spur flanks the N and S side of a natural grassy depression (c. 25m E−W; c. 15m N−S). A N−S drystone wall (Wth 0.6m; H 0.6-0.8m) closes off the W side of this area, creating a small ‘field’, but again this appears relatively recent in date.

Images:
MA105-018----_01.JPG General location viewed from higher ground at SE
MA105-018----_02.JPG Cashel viewed from SE
MA105-018----_03.JPG Cashel viewed from NW
MA105-018----_04.JPG Enclosing wall at E, viewed from N
MA105-018----_05.JPG External wall face at SW, viewed from S

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 25 October 2017