Ringfort (Cashel), Tubbrid, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Tubbrid, Co. Kerry

On the northern shore of Kenmare Bay, in low-lying pasture that gives little hint of anything ancient, a circular stone enclosure quietly dissolves back into the ground.

This is a caher, a type of ringfort built from dry-stone walling rather than earthen banks, and at roughly 37.5 metres across its northeast-to-southwest axis it would once have been a substantial enclosure. Most ringforts in Ireland date from the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries, and served as farmsteads or defended homesteads for local families of some standing. This one, however, has not worn the centuries well.

The enclosing wall survives only in fragments, running from the north-northwest around to the southeast, and for most of that arc it has collapsed into a low, sod-covered band of rubble. The exception is a stretch at the southeastern side where the original construction is still legible: neatly laid courses of stone on both the inner and outer faces, with a rubble core between them, the wall standing to an external height of 0.8 metres and measuring two metres wide. The disparity between that preserved section and the rest gives a sense of how thoroughly the site has been reduced. Modern field walls now cut across the western and southern edges, and material cleared from nearby fields has been piled against the outer circuit, further blurring what remains. Inside the enclosure, loose stone is scattered across the ground without forming any pattern that might suggest structures or internal features.

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Pete F
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