Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

In average pasture, located on a fairly level plateau, defined at SE−S by limestone outcropping, with commanding views of the surrounding gently undulating limestone grassland.
Shown on the 1838 OS 6-inch map as a circular embanked enclosure (diam. c. 30m) crossed E of centre on a N–S axis by a field boundary; not shown on the 1930 edition.
The outline of a roughly circular enclosure (48.5m N–S; 52.5m E–W) can still be discerned, defined by the remnants of a stone bank or wall (Wth 1.8-2m; H 0.2m). The wall survives as a sod-covered, flat-topped rise from which stones protrude randomly. At N–NE its outer edge is clipped by a later E–W property wall.
The enclosure straddles the natural contours of the elevation, with the enclosing wall at E at a slightly lower level that exterior ground level, and coinciding at SE–SW with a break of slope where the ground falls away in a series of natural terraces.
The interior is level and not noticeably raised above exterior ground level. The surface is uneven and disturbed in parts, especially in the W half, by pockets of past quarrying of bedrock seams. A N−S field wall which crossed the interior has been removed, but slight traces of it can still be seen. Remnants of a relict field boundary on a NE–SW axis abut the enclosing wall at NE.
Sunk in the enclosing wall at NW is a limestone slab. In its naturally corrugated surface is a circular depression (diam. c. 0.3m), in the base of which there are three smaller depressions.

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 21 December 2022