Ringfort (Cashel), Ballynahown, Co. Clare

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Ballynahown, Co. Clare

On the south-western slopes of Knockauns Mountain in County Clare, a roughly oval enclosure sits on level ground among scrub and rock, largely ignored by the landscape around it.

What makes it quietly odd is that a ruined cottage occupies its interior, its remains tucked against the inner bank at the north-west. At some point after the original enclosure fell into disuse, somebody chose to build a home inside it, and both structures have since been slowly consumed by blackthorn.

The site is a cashel, a type of early medieval ringfort defined by a drystone wall rather than an earthen bank. Cashels of this kind were typically built to enclose a farmstead, offering a degree of protection for people, livestock, and goods. This example measures roughly 23 metres east to west and 20 metres north to south, though much of its enclosing wall is now a loose, spread bank of uncertain age. Antiquarian Thomas Westropp recorded it in 1905, describing it as a ring-wall with interior dimensions of around 18 metres, already with the ruined cottage visible at its centre. Some original stonework survives: the outer wall-facing is still legible at the north and north-north-east, standing to a modest height of around 0.45 to 0.47 metres, and the western stretch of wall, where it reaches an exterior height of 0.8 metres and a thickness of up to two metres, may also be largely original, though it has collapsed on the inner face. A low section of bank at the north-north-west and north is thought to mark the position of the original entrance. The cashel sits within a broader field system on these slopes, and a second cashel lies roughly 100 metres to the north-north-east, suggesting this was once a more densely settled agricultural area than its current scrubby appearance implies.

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