cahermacnaghten

Although ring-forts of earth and stone had their origins in pre-history, possibly in the Bronze Age, this type of enclosed settlement continued in use for a very long time and became very numerous in the early Christian period. Some, indeed, were rebuilt or extended in the Middle Ages as defensible homesteads even though by that time mortared castles and tower-houses dominated the countryside. Cahermacnaghten, 4 miles east-north-east of the spa resort of Lisdoonvarna, was occupied as late as the end of the seventeenth century and for some time previously had been the teaching centre of a celebrated Gaelic law school conducted by the O'Davorens. A deed of 1675 shows that it was then inhabited and lists the dwellings standing inside the cashel, which has a diameter of just under 100 feet, as well as other property outside the wall. Of these structures only unintelligible fragments remain, but the well built cashel is substantially intact and has remains of an interesting late medieval two-tiered gateway.