Ringfort (Cashel), Poulacarran, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Poulacarran, Co. Clare

Between the Poulacarran and Eanty valleys in County Clare, a hazel-covered knoll conceals a stone enclosure that has been slipping quietly into the landscape for centuries.

The site occupies a natural shelf of bedrock, with a cliff rising immediately to its south-east and ravines cutting away to the south and north, a position that made any additional fortification almost redundant. The enclosure itself is a cashel, a ringfort built from dry-stone walling rather than earthen banks, and what survives here is roughly subrectangular in shape, measuring around 25 metres north-north-west to south-south-east and just over 24 metres east-north-east to west-south-west.

The double-faced wall, still standing somewhere between 1.7 and 2 metres high in places and roughly 1.3 to 1.4 metres thick, is best preserved along its north-north-west to south-west arc. Its outer face incorporates large horizontally laid slabs, a detail that suggests careful construction rather than opportunistic stacking. Rubble has tumbled both outward down the surrounding slopes and inward across the interior, where it has accumulated in deposits ranging from under a metre to nearly three metres wide. The interior itself slopes gently southward, and the remains of a house sit at its eastern side. The cashel was recorded on Ordnance Survey six-inch maps in both 1842 and 1920, marked with hachures indicating a raised or earthwork feature, which means it was a legible presence in the landscape even as it continued to deteriorate. About 41 metres to the north-north-west, a standing stone adds a further layer of prehistory to the immediate area, though whether it relates directly to the cashel or simply shares the same elevated ground is not known.

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Pete F
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