What is recorded here

Cathrach an Rois is a ruined stone ringfort on a Clare ridge, its walls collapsed into shallow spreads except where neat horizontal stones still stand knee-high at the north and west. The Burren map named it after a fairy, but the straighter edges and later drystone walls suggest people kept rebuilding or using the site long after its first making. It may have been a farmhouse, a boundary marker or a forgotten neighbourhood shrine; the stones no longer answer that question.

On an undulating ridge extending NE from a plateau in rough pasture within a large multiperiod field system (CL009-032001-), with level ground S–W and sloping away in other directions. Hachured on both the first (1842) and Cassini (1920) editions of the OS 6-inch map. Labelled ‘Cathrach an Rois’ on Robinson’s map of the Burren (1977). This irregularly rectilinear cashel (L 34.4m NE–SW; Wth 29.8m NW–SE) is defined by a stone wall (est. Wth at N c. 3.4m; int. H 0.4–0.9m; ext. H. 0.4–1.5m) which has mostly collapsed to form a stone spread which is less substantial at SE and SW (Wth 3–4.6m; int. H 0.4–0.7m; ext. H 0.3–0.7m) but more substantial elsewhere (Wth 6–7m; int. H 0.4–0.9m; ext. H 0.4–1m). The outer wall-face is best preserved at NE and NW (H 1.5m), where small horizontally laid stones (L 0.5m; H 0.2m) are visible. The wall-face has a straighter edge at NW, but this may be due to later re-building. The cashel appears to have been in a dilapidated state when described by Westropp (1898, 362): ‘poorly built and levelled within a foot or two of the ground.’ Later drystone walls (Wth c. 0.7m; H c. 1.1m) are built over the cashel wall at NW, SE and SW. A N–S wall footing (L 12.5m) extends through the NW sector of the interior. A possible enclosure (CL009-036004-) lies c. 25m to the S. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 1-10-2025

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