Cahervagliar Ringfort

In pasture, atop a slight spur, near the W end of a small river valley. This large bivallate ringfort is defined by a circular area (Diam. 75m) enclosed by a substantial inner earthen bank (max. Wth 5m; int. H 1.7m; Diam. 42m), with traces of stone facing on its inner face. A second bank, separated from the inner bank by a shallow fosse (W 2 to 3m), survives best to the N (Wth 2 to 3m; H 0.6m), and beyond is a large external fosse (Wth 7m; D 2.5m). It has a lintelled entrance, part of a projecting gate structure. Cultivation ridges cross the interior in a N-S direction.

The entrance, to the ESE, had collapsed and was blocked up before excavation and reconstruction by the OPW in 1983-4 (Manning 1987-8). The entrance passage (L 7.7m; max. Wth 2m; max. H 2.2m) was built of roughly coursed large stones, almost all partially or entirely punch-dressed. The passage runs through the inner bank, encroaching on the line of the inner fosse. Six of eight lintels originally covering the entrance were identified along the passageway prior to the excavation, two of them still in situ (L 2.26 to 2.64m; Wth 0.7 to 0.94m). Beyond the main face of the passage walls were found second masonry faces, acting as retaining walls. Just inside a sill stone at the front of the entrance, the excavation revealed a pair of double post-holes, close to the walls of the passage, and connected by a shallow gully; midway along the passage were a second pair of post-holes in another shallow gully; there was a possible third set at the inner end of the passage, though only one post-hole was found, along the N side. The excavation also uncovered the external stone façade flanking the entrance (L 4.12m). Following the excavation the façade and the passage were rebuilt, using as much as the original stones as possible, including the six surviving lintels.

According to the excavator, 'on the basis of the masonry the entrance is likely to date to within a century or two of the year 1000 A.D.', while both the quality of the stonework and the size of the ringfort 'indicate that Cahirvagliair must have been built by someone of importance and may even have been a royal residence' (Manning 1987-8, 54). There is a souterrain (CO094-060002-) in the SE quadrant. Some 350 to the ENE is another, smaller ringfort (CO094-061001-), partially removed by roadworks.

This is a National Monument in State Care (no. 233).