What is recorded here

Claggan Stone Ringfort is a collapsed hilltop cashel in County Donegal, Ireland, enclosing a narrow oval space beside a sheer cliff and a wider D-shaped grazing area. Its broken wall still marks the edge of a place built to be seen, defended and lived in before modern fields covered the region. The fairies may have taken the name, but the stones belong to people who stood at that edge, watched the valley and kept a small home safe against the sky.

Internal diam. c. 14m N-S, c. 12m E-W. A circular area enclosed by a collapsed stone wall, originally 1.5m in width, and in places incorporating stretches of rock outcrop. To the N about 2m below the level of the cashel there is an arc of stones on edge, concentric to the cashel wall which merges with rock outcrop at both ends. Outside this is a level D-shaped area measuring c. 20m N-S, defined on the N by a sheer cliff edge just inside of which is a ruined drystone wall. The site is on a hilltop in a defensive position. There is rough pasture over most of the hill, but there is good grazing in the D-shaped area. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

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