Ringfort (Cashel), Cahernead, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Cahernead, Co. Kerry

Most ringforts announce themselves with a clear circular bank and ditch, the silhouette of an early medieval farmstead still readable in the landscape.

This one, on a limestone rise near Cahernead in north Kerry, takes considerably more patience to read. The enclosure has been so thoroughly levelled over time that what remains is little more than a low, wide bank, averaging roughly eight metres across at its base but rising only between half a metre and one metre above the surrounding ground. It is a cashel, meaning a stone-built ringfort rather than an earthen one, though the distinction is now largely academic given how far the structure has been reduced.

The site sits directly north of another cahir in the same area, and together they suggest this part of north Kerry was once a settled, organised landscape, with enclosures positioned in relation to one another across the limestone terrain. Internal dimensions of roughly 22 metres north to south and 17 metres east to west indicate a reasonably substantial enclosure in its original form, large enough to have sheltered a household and its associated outbuildings. Immediately to the north of the bank lies a large depression that points to quarrying activity, which may itself help explain the cashel's present condition. Stone robbed from a disused enclosure was a practical resource, and limestone in particular was useful both for building and for burning in kilns to produce agricultural lime.

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Pete F
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