What is recorded here
Indicated was a small circular cashel beside Cahermore in County Clare, marked on the 1842 map and destroyed during road-making in 1898. Westropp watched its two-section stone wall be broken open and described the loss as shameful, while a low remnant of the ancient wall still lies beneath a newer boundary. The road may now carry wheels above buried clay, hearth debris or forgotten life, turning an ordinary journey into a passage through a place men stopped valuing before it disappeared.
In the NNE sector of the outer enclosure of the large bivallate cashel, ‘Cahermore’ (CL005-094002-). Indicated on the first edition (1842) of the OS 6-inch map as a circular enclosure (est. max diam. c. 23m).
In 1898, Westropp (1901, 284) visited twice during the partial levelling of this monument in the course of road-making and recorded: ‘A small ring wall, 70 feet from the last [‘Cahermore’, CL005-094002-] and to the east, occupies a slightly higher knoll. It had a wall built in two independent sections from the crag upward, as I had two opportunities of observing while it was in course of demolition in 1898. The wall was only 4 feet 6 inches high [c. 1.37m], and the sections were (the outer) 4 feet 3 inches thick [c. 1.3m], (the inner) 4 feet 1 inch [c. 1.24m: total wall T c. 2.54m]. The foundations of the southern section still remain as the road contractors left it. A third foundation of an oval caher [CL005-094005] lies in a grassy field east of Cahermore.'
He concluded, despairingly; 'It is a shameful fact that, in a country incumbered with stones, ancient buildings should be so wantonly swept away for the sordid gain of private persons; but educated public interest in and respect for ancient Irish remains are almost non-existent in the country.’
A remnant of cashel wall (L c. 9m; H 0.25m) still survives upon which a more modern wall is built, and subsurface archaeological deposits may also survive, even under the road.
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Ros Ó Maoldúin
Date of upload: 19 January 2023
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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