I think that it was about time that we came back to this amazing stone fort! The first and last time we were here was on June 30th, 1994. After 22 years we feared that much had changed around here, and as a matter of fact I think that something has changed, the car park wasn't that large last time. The honesty box for the voluntary donation at the gate, though, is still there!
The fort was built in the early AD centuries before Christianity arrived to Ireland, so around 100-300 AD. The fort has an inner diameter of 30 metres, the walls are up to 6 metres high and are nearly 4 metres thick. The structure is totally made with the dry-stone technique and shows an amazing building skill. A lintelled passageway leads to the inner court. This passage is at the south (180°) side of the wall and is 1.65 metres high, 1.45 metres wide and 3.80 metres long.
The top of the wall could be reached by several two-level two-side flights of stone steps around the inner face of the fort. There's a flight of steps every about 40° of the circumference. There are also two mural chambers within the wall, one is at the southwest (210°), the other one is at the northwest (325°).
The top of the fort has an irregular height and this might mean that the stones from the walls have been taken away during the centuries for being used as a building material elsewhere.
This stone fort is one of the best things to be seen in the southwest of Ireland, but is little known among tourists, though we had to wait for some German tourists to stop playing fools before being able to visit it!
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