Ringfort (Cashel), Crumpane, Co. Cork

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Crumpane, Co. Cork

On a scrubby hillside above Coulagh Bay in west Cork, a rough circle of collapsed stonework marks a site that most people would walk past without a second glance.

What they would be passing is a cashel, the term used for a ringfort enclosed by a dry-stone wall rather than an earthen bank. Ringforts of all types were the dominant form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically serving as enclosed farmsteads for a single family or small community. This one sits on a break in a south-west-facing slope, its position making the most of the view across the bay below.

The enclosure measures roughly 22 metres north to south and 24.7 metres east to west, giving it the near-circular plan typical of the cashel form. The wall is largely ruinous, but the lower courses of stonework survive on the south-western side, preserving at least a legible outline of the original structure. A gap roughly 2.2 metres wide in the southern arc of the wall is likely the original entrance, a detail recorded by O'Brien in 1970. The site is modest in scale by any measure, but its elevated position on the hillside would have given whoever lived here a clear outlook over the surrounding landscape and water, which was as practical a concern in early medieval times as it was a useful one for keeping an eye on movement below.

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