Ringfort (Cashel), Cregavockoge, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Ringforts
Most ringforts are circular, which is precisely what makes this enclosure on the Burren plateau worth a second look.
Sitting on high ground in Cregavockoge, Co. Clare, it presents an almost square outline with rounded corners and a gently curved southern side, measuring roughly twenty metres across. A cashel, as a stone-built ringfort is generally known, would once have served as a defended farmstead, typically enclosing a dwelling, outbuildings, and a small yard. This one retains its defining stone wall clearly enough to read the shape from the ground.
Attached to the eastern side of the enclosure is a stone-walled field, approximately thirty-five metres north to south and thirty metres east to west. To the west, a series of meandering field walls extend outward from near the enclosure's perimeter, and these may be broadly contemporary with the cashel itself, suggesting a modest but organised agricultural landscape once spread across this part of the plateau. The site was reported to the National Monuments Service by Conn Herriott and remains visible on aerial imagery, its outline preserved by the thin grass and light scrub cover typical of the high Burren, where the limestone close to the surface discourages deeper vegetation from burying such features entirely.