Caherlee, Ballinillaun, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Ringforts

Caherlee, Ballinillaun, Co. Galway

What stood at Ballinillaun until 1991 was a cashel, a type of early medieval stone ringfort defined by a drystone enclosing wall, and by the time anyone thought to record it properly, a bulldozer had already done its work.

The site no longer exists in any meaningful physical sense, which makes the documentation that survives all the more pointed. A circular enclosure roughly 38 metres across once sat on a slight rise in scrubland in County Galway, its drystone wall intact enough to be described as fairly well-preserved when surveyors visited in December 1982. Inside, traces of internal dividing walls were visible to the east and west, and a rectangular house site occupied the north-western quadrant of the interior.

The picture was more complex than the enclosure alone suggested. A researcher named McCaffrey, writing in 1952, had recorded additional features around the cashel: a rectangular structure built against the southern wall, and a semicircular wall of around 40 metres running immediately to the east. That outer wall partly enclosed two further features, one of them described as a souterrain, the other as a house site. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage, typically associated with early medieval settlement and used variously for storage, refuge, or both. A sixth house site lay roughly 15 metres to the north. By the time of the 1982 visit, none of these outer features left any visible surface trace. The cashel itself, the one substantial thing still standing, was bulldozed in 1991, nine years after it was formally recorded and surveyed. Earlier references appear in Redington's 1912 account of the area, suggesting the site had been known and noted for most of the twentieth century before its destruction.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Caherlee, Ballinillaun, Co. Galway. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement