Fairy fort / stone ringfort in Cahernabrock

In pasture, straddling a narrow NNE–SSW rise or terrace in gently undulating limestone terrain. Ground rises gently to E to a parallel and slightly higher terrace. There are extensive views to W and N. This cashel consists of an oval area (31.5m NNE–SSW; 24m WNW–ESE) defined by remnants of a drystone wall (Wth 2.1m). The wall was constructed with a rubble core contained by inner and outer stone facing. A depression (Wth c. 4m), possibly the remnants of an enclosing fosse, was noted in 1979 outside the cashel wall at E−S, but an inspection in 1999 found that it was evident only at E, and had been infilled at S (SMR file). An ESE/WSW property wall bisects the cashel interior centrally. On the N arc, the cashel wall is evident as a low, grass-covered stone bank, with remnants of the inner and external wall face clearly visible at NNW–NNE. The stones forming the basal course of the external face are very large, noticeably more so than on the inner face. On the S arc, the enclosing wall is reduced to a broadly slumped stony scarp (Wth 4-4.5m; ext. H 0.95m), on the inner edge of which remnants of the inner wall face (H 0.6-1.2m), consisting of roughly coursed, medium-large limestone blocks, can still be seen. At ENE, three stones set on edge, transversely to the cashel wall, appear to represent the jamb stones on one side of the original entrance, although no clearly defined gap is now evident. In the centre of the N half of the interior there is a D-shaped, sod-covered stone mound (c. 8m E–W; 3.3m N–S to wall; H 0.7m). The straight side at S coincides with, and is overlain by, the E-W property wall; this suggests that the stone mound may originally have extended into the S half of the interior which is now grassy and featureless. In the NW quadrant of the interior, just W of centre, three shallow surface depressions may indicate a collapsed souterrain (MA123-018002-). Also in the NW quadrant is a low stony rise (Wth 2m) extending in a shallow curve from the E-W property at S to the cashel wall at NNW. In the NE quadrant, a discontinuous line of medium-large stones protrudes from the sod, extending from the cashel wall at NE for several meters to W across the N part of the interior; its significance is unclear. At NW, a later field wall, on a NE–SW axis, overlies the cashel wall. Heaps of field clearance stone are piled along the scarp on the S half of the cashel. A field wall, shown abutting the cashel at SE on the1929 OS map, has been removed. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 13 September 2018 This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 9/1983).