Ringfort - cashel

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, just below the summit of a ridge, on a S-facing slope. A roughly oval area (30.7m N-S; 26.4m E-W) enclosed by a roughly coursed drystone wall. From NE-S the wall (T 2.5m; int. H 1.5m; ext. H 1.4m) is least modified. Elsewhere sections of it have been breached, modified or rebuilt or obscured by accumulations of field-clearance stones. At NW stones have been piled on top of the wall and a slump of loose stones has spilled into the interior, possibly a mixture of wall collapse and field-clearance stones. A section of wall (L c. 5m) at N has been breached and partially rebuilt. A field boundary extends N from the cashel wall immediately E of this breach while immediately E of the field boundary another section of the wall (L 11m) has been rebuilt and expanded into the interior to form a D-shaped structure. Immediately E of this structure is a narrow break (Wth 1.05m) in the cashel wall. A further blocked-up gap (Wth 1.8m) is evident at SSW. The interior slopes down to SSE from the fairly level N third, levelling out again in the S third. There is a souterrain (SL046-032002-) in the W half of the interior. Immediately outside the wall at S is a sod-covered stony rise (6m N-S; c. 10m E-W) defined by a low uneven scarp (H 0.5m). Stones and boulders protrude from the edge of this platform, some of which may be bedrock. A narrower (Wth 2-3m; H 0.3m) continuation of this rise is evident S-SW immediately outside the cashel wall.

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