Ringfort (Cashel), Carns, Co. Sligo

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Ringfort (Cashel), Carns, Co. Sligo

In the hazel scrub on a south-facing slope at the edge of a pasture field near Carns in County Sligo, there may be a cashel that nobody has been able to find precisely.

A cashel is a type of early medieval ringfort constructed from dry-stone walling rather than earthen banks, and they are common enough across the west of Ireland. What is less common is a site that has been recorded in the historical literature for well over a century and yet remains, in practical terms, lost.

Two antiquarians noted the cashel in the late nineteenth century. W.G. Wood-Martin, who wrote extensively on the archaeology of Sligo, mentioned it in 1887 to 1888, and S.A. Milligan followed with a separate reference in 1890 to 1891. Both references are brief, and when a modern survey was carried out, the dense hazel overgrowth on the downslope made it impossible to locate the structure with any precision. The site is officially recorded, classified, and assigned a map position, yet the cashel itself remains unconfirmed on the ground. It occupies a peculiar category: known, named, and yet effectively invisible.

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Pete F
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