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Cashel

Fairy fort / stone ringfort
Cashel
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What is recorded here

Cashel is a two-walled fairy fort perched on a twenty-metre cliff above the Glencar valley, where grass has strangled most of its stone edges. A rectangular annexe later cut through the eastern wall, suggesting humans repurposed the old circle rather than worshipping it. The original entrance has vanished entirely, leaving the fort closed and defiant against the sky.
Situated at the top of a S-facing cliff (H c. 20m) overlooking the Glencar valley to the S and W, and on the site of the bivallate cashel (LE007-025001-). Grass-covered subcircular area (int. diam. 24m NW-SE; 23m NE-SW) defined by a stone spread (Wth 3m), with the internal wall-face preserved or rebuilt (max. H 1.45m) NW-NE. The original entrance is not identified. The wall was reduced to a grass-covered stone spread (Wth 3m) NE-SE when a rectangular annexe (int. dims 18m E-W; 17m N-S) defined by a double-faced drystone wall (Wth 0.7-1m; H 0.7-1.3m) was built to the E, connecting with the surviving inner wall-face. The inner cashel wall backed on to the cliff at either end, but the cliff-top curves outwards here, completing a circular form with a drystone wall at the edge of the cliff SE-NW. This inner wall is separated by a berm (Wth 7m) from an outer grass-covered stone spread with facing-stones (Wth 1.5m) NW-E, which backs on to the cliff at either end and is largely robbed within the annexe E-S. A house site (int. dims 4.6m N-S; 1.3m E-W) defined by a stone spread (Wth 1m; int. H 0.2m) is built on the line of the outer wall at ENE, and there is a small quarry on the outer wall at NE. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 September 2008

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Recorded monument

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