Structure, Noughaval, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Utility Structures

Structure, Noughaval, Co. Clare

Inside the stone enclosure known as Caherwalsh in Noughaval, County Clare, a cluster of barely visible foundations describes the ghost of a settlement.

The most clearly recorded of these is a D-shaped structure, its interior measuring roughly three metres across, its outline now softened beneath grass in the south-eastern corner of the cashel. It is easy to walk past something like this without registering what it is, which is part of what makes it worth pausing over.

A cashel is a type of early medieval stone-walled enclosure, typically circular or roughly so, built to protect a farmstead or small settlement. Caherwalsh appears to have been a busy interior space. Beyond the D-shaped structure in the south-east, another building lies approximately six metres to the west, and two further structures of a similar character occupy the north-eastern corner. Several other possible house sites have also been identified within the enclosure, suggesting that the cashel once contained something closer to a small community than a single household. The D-shaped plan, uncommon but not unknown in early Irish settlement archaeology, may reflect a domestic or ancillary function, though the evidence here does not extend to a firm interpretation.

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