Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

In good pasture, on a prominent hillock on a NE-facing slope at the foot of the Ox Mountains. A roughly circular raised area (32.8m NNE-SSW; 28.3m WNW-ESE) enclosed by a substantial, although largely collapsed, wall of rubble masonry (Wth 6m; int. H 0.7m; ext. H c. 2.3m). This was formerly incorporated into the field boundary WNW-SE. Many of the field boundaries marked in the vicinity on the 1913 OS 6-inch map have been removed. Stones from these walls are piled up against the outer face of the cashel wall. The ground level of the interior falls from the centre to the perimeter. There are a number of rock outcrops, boulders and piles of loose stones in the interior. At ENE, a slightly curving wall (L 13.8m ENE-WSW; Wth 2.3-3m; H 0.4-1.1m) extends from the inner face of the cashel wall into the interior. At the WSW end of this wall is a short length of a second wall (L c. 2.5m NNW-SSE) extending towards the cashel wall at NNW, at right angles to the first wall. There is a gap (Wth c. 7m) between the present terminus of the second wall and the cashel. The effect of these two walls was to separate a large portion of the NE quadrant from the remainder of the interior. There is possible souterrain (SL020-130002-) in the interior.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).

Date of upload: 18 January 2008