Ringfort (Cashel), Erinagh More, Co. Clare

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Erinagh More, Co. Clare

Beneath the tree cover of Erinagh More in County Clare, a roughly circular enclosure sits quietly deteriorating into the forest floor, its walls reduced to low spreads of stone no more than seventy centimetres high in places.

What makes this site particularly interesting is not any single dramatic feature but rather the cluster of elements gathered within and around it: a souterrain in the north-west quadrant and a cashel joined directly to the east, forming a small complex of early medieval remains that suggests sustained, deliberate occupation of this patch of undulating ground.

The enclosure itself measures approximately 32 metres east to west and just over 29 metres north to south, its perimeter defined by the remnants of a drystone wall, most legible along the north-west to north arc, with outer facing stones appearing intermittently through the grass and scrub. A cashel, in Irish usage, is a stone-walled ringfort, and the conjoined example here implies that whoever built or used this place was working in a tradition of dry-laid stone construction common across Munster in the early medieval period. The souterrain is an underground passage or chamber, typically corbelled or lined with stone, which in an Irish context was most often used for storage or refuge. Its presence in the north-west quadrant adds another layer to what was clearly a considered arrangement of structures rather than a single, isolated enclosure. The site was catalogued as an 'Enclosure' in the Sites and Monuments Record in 1992 and again in the Record of Monuments and Places in 1996, classifications that reflect some uncertainty or conservatism in the original survey rather than any shortage of material evidence on the ground.

The forested setting now works against easy visibility. The stone spread, four to five metres wide in places but low to the ground throughout, is the kind of feature that reads clearly on a plan but demands patience in the field, where scrub growth and uneven terrain tend to blur the boundary between deliberate construction and natural scatter. The outer facing stones, where they do show themselves, are the clearest indicators of the wall's original line.

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Pete F
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