What is recorded here

Cahermackirilla is an almost circular stone ringfort near the western edge of a Clare plateau, marked on maps since 1842 and still holding a wide broken wall across rough pasture. Its interior slopes steeply toward the centre, while nearby hut and house sites suggest people lived, worked and perhaps fled beside the fort through several periods. The name Fairy fort may be local story rather than fact, but it fits the place: a strange empty circle on open land, old enough to become mysterious and large enough to remember.

Near the W edge of a plateau, in rough pasture within a multiperiod field system (CL009-084001-). Hachured on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. Listed as ‘Enclosure’ in the RMP (1996). This almost circular cashel (ext. dims. 33.4m N-S; 32.6m E-W) is defined by a wide stone spread (Wth 6-12m; int. H 0.5-0.6m; ext. H 0.2-2.5m) that has been partly rebuilt as a strong double-faced wall between W and NNE and as a drystone wall, now collapsed, between NNE and SE. This wall is broken out between SE and W. The outer wall-face of the original cashel wall is visible most of the way round. A gap at NNE is modern. The interior slopes steeply from N towards the centre of the site. There is a house site (CL009-084027-) in the NW quadrant. Two small enclosures/pens, defined by drystone wall, are visible to its S. There are two hut sites (CL009-084020- and CL009-084026-) c. 42m to the ENE and c. 35m to the WSW respectively and a house site (CL009-084029-) c. 55m to the SSE. An enclosure (CL009-084014-) lies c. 100m to the SW. The following image has been uploaded: CL009-084016-_01.jpg View from W Compiled by: Olive Alcock and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 29 April 2022

A fairy fort or stone ringfort in Cahermackirilla, likely an early-medieval defensive or domestic site, is situated on the western edge of a plateau within a multiperiod landscape. It is associated with local folklore surrounding fairy activity, common in such sites across Ireland.

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