What is recorded here

Beal East holds a circular earthen fort twenty-eight metres across, perched on a rise to watch the River Shannon and the Clare coast. Its thick bank still stands with an eastern entrance and a faint southern ditch, suggesting humans lived there before fairy tales claimed the empty shape. The fort may have served as a home, a boundary marker or a place of warning, but distance and forgetting have removed its name. What remains is a deliberate circle on land that still faces the water, waiting for someone to remember why it was built.

Internal diameter 28m N-S, 27m E-W This univallate rath is situated on a rise and has a commanding view of the River Shannon and the coast of Co. Clare. It consists of a circular area enclosed by a well-defined bank that measures 1.5m externally, 1.8m internally and varies between 3m-6m in width at the base. There is a slight trace of a fosse in the SW sector, which runs for c14m and measures 1m in width and .4m below the surrounding land. The entrance lies in the E sector and is 3.5m wide. The above description is derived from C. Toal, ‘North Kerry Archaeological Survey’. Dingle. Brandon in association with FAS Training and Employment Authority (1995), no. 117. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 2 August 2013

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.