Ringforts
are the most common monuments on the Irish landscape and are known
by a variety of
names, including fort, rath, dún, lios, cashel and caher. They
consist of an area, usually circular, enclosed by one or more earthen
banks or, occasionally, by fosses (in the case of raths), or by stone
walls (in the case of cashels). They generally vary in size between 25
and 50 meters in diameter and were erected as protected enclosures around
farmsteads, mainly during the Early Christian Period (c.500-1100 AD).
There are currently 224 recorded surviving ringforts in County Clare,
not including cashels, promontory forts, cliff-edge forts, and hillforts.
Photos
of ringforts Map
of the ringforts of Clare