Ringfort (Cashel), Moanreel, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Moanreel, Co. Clare

At Moanreel in County Clare, a cashel sits quietly in the landscape, its stone walls enclosing a circular space that has gone largely unexamined in the written record.

A cashel is simply a ringfort built from stone rather than earth and timber, the construction method favoured in areas where loose fieldstone was plentiful and soil thin. Clare, with its limestone karst and thin topsoil, produced many of them. This one carries no famous name and no particular story that has survived into the public record.

Ringforts of all kinds, whether earthen raths or stone cashels, were the dominant settlement form in early medieval Ireland, broadly from around the fifth to the twelfth centuries. They served as enclosed farmsteads, their walls protecting family groups, livestock, and stores from opportunistic raiding rather than organised military assault. Thousands survive across the country in varying states of preservation, and Clare has a notable concentration of them, owing partly to the rocky terrain that made agricultural clearance difficult and left ancient structures more intact than elsewhere. The specific history of the Moanreel cashel, including when it was built, who occupied it, and how it fared across the intervening centuries, remains unrecorded in any source currently available to the public.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Ringfort (Cashel), Moanreel, Co. Clare. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement