Ringfort (Cashel), Caranavoodaun, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Caranavoodaun, Co. Galway

On a gentle north-facing slope in Caranavoodaun, County Galway, a large circular enclosure sits largely unnoticed beneath the ordinary business of a working landscape.

A modern field boundary cuts straight across the site, as though the land simply absorbed what was once a significant structure into its own geometry. That quiet erasure is part of what makes the place worth a second look.

What remains is a cashel, a type of ringfort defined by a drystone wall rather than an earthen bank, built without mortar from stones carefully stacked and fitted together. This one is subcircular, roughly 61 metres in diameter, which places it at a considerable size. The enclosing wall has collapsed along much of its circuit, but it survives best from the west-south-west around through west and on to north-north-east, where a low rubble spread still traces the original line. The site was noted by McCaffrey in 1952 and recorded as no. 76a in that survey, suggesting it was already in a diminished state by the mid-twentieth century. Cashels of this kind are generally associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland, typically dating from roughly the sixth to the twelfth century, and often served as enclosed farmsteads for a single family or small community.

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