Part I: Kilnaboy Parish

Cashlaun Gar; Lower Fort

Cashlaun Gar
At the entrance of Glencurraun rise two great natural domes of limestone, and on the nearer,^[2] towering over the road, we see the broken walls of Cashlaun Gar like the acropolis of some lost city. Climbing, with some difficulty, up the steep slope, over heaps of stone that are slipping down the hill, we stand in the interior in deep grass and moss covering rough crags and treacherous fissures. To the N.W. side are the remains ofthree cloghauns, so ruined that we cannot trace the entire face of their walls; a fourth stands in the very centre of the enclosure opposite the eastern gate.

Cashlaun Gar, from S.E.

They were probably thatched and not vaulted, as the walls are slight, and no great quantity of stones appear. The ramparts are well built of long blocks, with upright joints at intervals, attaining their greatest height of 13 feet 6 inches to the north, and from 9 feet to 10 feet thick, increasing at the gateway to 11 feet 8 inches, with two faces and large blocks for filling.

Plan of Cashlaun Gar

A long reach to the N.E. is 8 feet high. It ends in the well-built north pier of the gate, the south pier being much injured. The gate faces E.N.E., and opens on the edge of a precipitous slope and a rock 10 feet high, sheltering a badger’s den. The inhabitants must have entered the fort by ladders, which suggests the theory that some cahers with no gates were entered by similar means; and if the ancient builders ^[3] used wooden scaffolds, the construction of a ladder would have been easy. At the foot of the slope lie long fragments of stone, probably the broken lintels of the gate. The fort is very irregular, being 133 feet 6 inches north and south, and 76 feet east and west internally. The south wall has two re-entrant angles, dipping in 5 feet, in 19 feet, and 6 feet 9 inches, in 29 feet. They are beautifully constructed to cling, with unnecessary accuracy, to the edge of the perpendicular cliff. There is a similar but more shallow dip, in the west rampart, much of which has fallen. ^[4]

Gateway, Cashlaun Gar

Lower Fort
On the opposite edge of the table-land, and across the valley, about 300 feet from Cashlaun Gar, is a straight-sided enclosure, irregular, and somewhat diamond-shaped, 153 feet north and south, and 135 feet east and west internally. It is much defaced, the walls only 3 feet 6 inches thick, and about 5 feet at the highest part, being built of long ‘stretchers,’ several 8 feet 6 inches long, and in parts cyclopean in character. The S.W. corner is rounded, and constructed with a facing of large stones set on end. It may have been a cattle enclosure.

Masonry in Lower Fort