Ringfort (Cashel), Scrallaghbeg, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Scrallaghbeg, Co. Kerry

At the entrance to Gleann na nGealt, a valley on the Dingle Peninsula whose name translates roughly as the Glen of the Mad or the Glen of the Wild Ones, a ruined stone enclosure sits on a west-facing slope in a state of considerable collapse.

What was once a cashel, the Irish term for a stone-walled ringfort of roughly circular plan, is now little more than a broad band of rubble; the debris averages about four metres wide and rises only around 1.3 metres on the interior side, dropping to a mere 0.3 metres where it meets the outer ground level. No clear entrance survives, and the whole circuit is heavily overgrown, making it the kind of structure that could be walked past without a second glance.

The site has an internal diameter of 25.6 metres, placing it comfortably within the range of medium-sized cashels typical of early medieval Ireland, structures that generally served as enclosed farmsteads for a family of some local standing. Its position at the threshold of Gleann na nGealt is quietly suggestive; the valley has its own considerable folklore, long associated in Irish tradition with wandering and madness, and the presence of a substantial stone enclosure at its mouth hints at a community that once regarded this landscape as a place worth watching over, or perhaps simply worth farming. The survey of the Corca Dhuibhne area by J. Cuppage, published in 1986 as part of the Dingle Peninsula Archaeological Survey, recorded the structure and noted its ruinous condition, which has changed little since.

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