What is recorded here

Clooneen holds a rare rectangular cashel instead of a round one, proving that human hands imposed sharp geometry on the cliff edge long before modern boundaries. Its curved northern corners and robust eastern wall suggest a confident community that watched the sea and divided its land into angular rooms. The fairies may have inherited the shape later, but the stones first answered to people brave enough to build against the horizon.

In a slight dip with a gentle slope to S and W and at the edge of a cliff to the S and E and within an extensive field system (CL009-059001-). Hachured on the 1916 OS 6-inch map. Listed as ‘Rectangular Enclosure’ in the RMP (1996). A rectangular area (ext. dims. 46.5m N-S; 43.2m E-W) defined by a stone spread (Wth 4-5m-7.3m; int. H 0.3-0.7m; ext. H 0.3-1.3) best preserved in the E and less so in S and W where it is absent or faintly visible. The original width of the wall (Wth 3.4-3.7m) can be traced on the N side. The corners of the cashel wall are curved at NW and NE. The wall has been robbed at W extent and partially at N. These walls were originally well defined with internal and external wall-facings of stones laid horizontally (dims. L c. 0.8m; Wth 0.3m H 0.4m) in two or three courses. A stone spread in the SW corner may represent a house site (CL016-188----). Two separate stone-filled depressions in the S where bedrock is exposed are aligned N-S (L 2.8m; Wth 1.2m) and E-W (L 4m; Wth 7.8m) and are likely natural. An bank or grass-covered wall extending from SE to NW outside the cashel at a distance of c. 10-17m is likely related. Two enclosures (CL016-020018- and CL016-020017-) are located c. 12m to the NNW and c. 70m to the SW. A subcircular cashel (CL016-020020-) is located c. 80m to the NE. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Lynda McCormack Date of upload: 28 March 2022

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