What is recorded here

Iskancullin holds a small stone ringfort on the eastern edge of a Clare plateau, where wide views stretch across sloping pasture and karst limestone. People built a rectangular structure over its western wall later, cutting three lintelled alcoves into the base for storage or shelter. The fort still stands within an old field system, marked on maps since 1842 and listed in the Royal Irish Academy survey, while local tradition may have called it a fairy fort because its purpose and owners vanished into time.

At the E edge of a plateau, with land sloping gently to E and S and wide views E-SW. In rough pasture and karst limestone, within a large multiperiod field system (CL009-032001-). Hachured on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. Listed as ‘Enclosure’ in the RMP (1996). This small subcircular cashel (c. 22.5m N-S; 21.25m E-W) is defined by a stony bank (Wth 3.5-5.7m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H. 0.6m) with a roughly vertical outer wall-face (H 0.2-1.2m) visible at NE-WNW. There is a Man-made underground passage (CL009-070002-) in the NE interior, adjacent to the cashel wall. A later rectangular drystone structure (5m NNW-SSE; 3.5m ENE-WSW) is built over the cashel exterior at W, its ENE wall (H 2m) probably overlying the outer wall-face of the cashel. There are three lintelled alcoves at the base of this later wall, with square openings (Wth c. 0.5m; H 0.5) but widening inside (D 1.7m). Immediately to the N of this later structure is a modern gap (Wth 3m) in the cashel perimeter. About 5m to the N of the cashel is a small stone clearance mound (diam. 5m; H 0.4m) overgrown with vegetation. An enclosure (CL009-071----) lies c. 186m to the NE. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 6 April 2022

A fairy fort / stone ringfort in Iskancullin is a circular earthen or stone enclosure typical of early-medieval Ireland, likely dating to between the 5th and 10th centuries. Local folklore associates such sites with the supernatural, particularly with fairies, and they were often avoided for fear of disturbance or enchantment.

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