Ringfort (Cashel), Caherfadda, Co. Clare

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Caherfadda, Co. Clare

On an east-facing slope in County Clare, a low oval ring of tumbled stone marks the outline of an early Irish cashel, a type of ringfort enclosed by a dry-stone wall rather than an earthen bank.

What makes Caherfadda quietly interesting is not any dramatic height or commanding position, but the accumulation of small details that reward a careful look: a probable original entrance, an upright stone still guarding one side of the gap, and a secondary drystone structure tucked just inside the perimeter.

The enclosure is oval in plan, roughly 32 metres along its longer north-east to south-west axis and about 19 metres across. Much of the walling has spread and collapsed into a stony band three to four metres wide and less than a metre tall, but the north-east stretch survives noticeably better, still standing up to a metre in height and retaining something close to its original width. At the south-east, a gap of nearly six metres may represent the original entrance, and an upright stone at its northern edge suggests it was once deliberately defined rather than simply left to decay. Just south of this probable doorway, a small drystone structure, about two and a half metres by less than two metres, sits against the inner face of the cashel wall. Inside the enclosure, a further area of stone spread in the northern portion hints at additional activity or subdivision, though its precise purpose is unclear. The site was already recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch maps of 1840 and again in the revised edition of 1916, evidence that it was a legible feature in the landscape for well over a century before any formal archaeological attention came its way.

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