Ringfort (Cashel), Castlegowan, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
Ringforts
Between early medieval enclosure and improvised farmyard, the cashel at Castlegowan occupies a curious middle ground.
A cashel is a ringfort built from stone rather than earthen banks, and this one sits on a slight rise in the wet pastureland of County Sligo, its circular form still legible despite centuries of agricultural reuse. The enclosing bank, roughly 26 metres across and built from random limestone rubble, has been absorbed into the working landscape around it so thoroughly that a casual glance might miss the fact that the underlying structure is well over a thousand years old.
What survives of the original construction is fragmentary but telling. Along the north-northeast to east arc of the bank, un-coursed large limestone flags still form part of the external wall facing, a remnant of how the cashel would once have presented itself to the outside world. Elsewhere, the fabric has been repurposed rather than simply left to decay. Modern drystone field walls have been built directly on top of the bank and along its centre line on the eastern and north-northwestern sides. More strikingly, the external face on the southeastern side has been reconstructed to serve as the rear wall of a small cattle yard, complete with a shed and the ruined shell of a house built hard against the outside of the cashel. A gap of about 1.7 metres in the bank at the southwest marks what appears to be the original entrance, the one feature that connects the structure most directly to its early medieval function, when a cashel like this would have enclosed a farmstead, offering protection for people, livestock, and valuables within its thick stone walls.