Ringfort (Cashel), Craggs, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
A ringfort that has been partly eaten by a quarry is an unusual thing to come across, and this one at Craggs in County Limerick sits in exactly that condition, balanced between survival and loss on a limestone outcrop above the Robertstown River.
A cashel, to clarify the term, is a ringfort defined by a stone enclosure rather than an earthen bank, and this example once formed a roughly circular area measuring approximately 26 metres north to south. The quarrying that cut into its western side has left the monument truncated, so what remains is an arc of collapsed dry-stone walling running from the north-north-west around to the south-south-east, with the missing sections corresponding precisely to where the quarry edge begins.
The surviving wall, compiled and recorded by Denis Power and uploaded to the record in August 2011, still stands to around three courses in places. Its internal face reaches approximately one metre in height, the external face slightly more at around 1.2 metres, and the wall itself is roughly a metre thick throughout. There is a break of about four metres in the wall at the south-east, which may represent an original entrance, though the general state of collapse makes any reading of the structure cautious work. The interior is uneven, strewn with loose stones, and largely overgrown, which is fairly typical for a site that has seen this degree of disturbance.
The setting is worth noting even if the monument itself is fragmentary. The outcrop sits atop a steep slope that falls away to the north and west toward the estuary of the Robertstown River, meaning the position would have commanded a clear view over the surrounding low ground, as was common for defended enclosures of this kind. Access requires some care given the proximity of the old quarry edge, and the overgrown interior makes it difficult to read the ground plan clearly. The best sense of the surviving wall comes from the eastern arc, where the stonework is most intact and the relationship between interior and exterior faces is still legible.