Ringfort (Cashel), Ardgroom Outward, Co. Cork

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Ringfort (Cashel), Ardgroom Outward, Co. Cork

On a north-facing slope at the foot of Tooreennamna Mountain in west Cork, a roughly circular enclosure of large boulders looks out over Ardgroom Harbour.

It is not especially dramatic at first glance, but the logic of its placement is immediately readable: the site sits where the land begins to level and the harbour opens up below, a position that would have made both surveillance and defence straightforward for whoever lived here.

This is a cashel, a type of ringfort built from stone rather than earthen banks, a construction method common in the rocky landscapes of Munster where loose boulders were more readily available than good digging soil. The enclosure measures roughly 25 metres north to south and 21 metres east to west, making it a modest but not insignificant example of the form. Much of the surrounding wall is now in a ruined state, though a section of original facing survives to the south-east, standing about a metre high and nearly four metres wide, enough to give a clear sense of how the structure was built. The entrance, a gap of about one and a half metres on the eastern side, still retains its revetment: a recumbent slab laid flat on each side of the opening, a small but telling detail that speaks to the care taken in construction. The site was recorded by O'Brien in 1970, and it appears in the Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, published in 1992.

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