© Mapbox · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundary data © DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR)
Cashel is an early Christian cashel located near Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. The monument occupies a site underlain by wacke bedrock of the Gala Group formation, deposited during the Telychian period of the Silurian. Positioned at grid reference J245 426, the cashel is protected by the Historic Environment Division under statutory designation 7853.
Cashels are characteristic ringfort settlements of early Christian Ireland and later medieval Ulster, typically consisting of stone-built circular or oval enclosures. These defensive farmsteads served as residences for families of rank and their dependants, combining domestic, agricultural and occasionally monastic functions. The stone walls of such structures were designed to protect inhabitants and livestock from raids and rustling.
This Banbridge cashel exemplifies the tradition of stone-walled settlement that flourished across Ulster from the early Christian period through the medieval centuries. The monument's survival to the present day, despite centuries of landscape change and agricultural development, makes it an important record of early settlement patterns and defensive architecture in the region. The underlying geology of wacke—a hard, resistant sedimentary rock—would have provided building material suitable for the cashel's construction.
Cashel is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 7853. View the official record →
Cashel is an early Christian cashel located near Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 7853.
Cashel dates from the e.christ. period, and is classified as a cashel. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Cashel is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 7853.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Large platform enclosure (5.6 km), Standing stone (6.4 km), Standing stone (6.8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Cashel's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Cashel stands on Gala Group, bedrock that formed in the Telychian. The rock here is wacke.