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Cashel is a post-medieval fortified enclosure situated in County Down, Northern Ireland. The site lies on wacke bedrock of the Hawick Group, which was formed during the Wenlock epoch and provides a foundation of hard sedimentary stone typical of the drumlin belt landscape. The monument's defensive earthworks exploit the local topography, common to fortified settlements of this period across Ulster.
The cashel represents a form of livestock enclosure and settlement that remained in use throughout the early modern period in northern Ireland. Such structures typically comprise a circular or oval bank and ditch, sometimes with stone facing or rubble core, designed primarily to protect cattle rather than to withstand sustained military assault. The construction method would have utilised local stone sources from the Hawick Group bedrock.
The site is scheduled under the Historic Environment Division reference 8480 and forms part of the protected archaeological heritage of County Down. Its survival as an earthwork monument provides evidence of settlement patterns and agricultural practice in the post-medieval Irish landscape, documenting the persistence of traditional enclosure types long after medieval fortified settlement had evolved elsewhere.
Cashel is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 8480. View the official record →
Cashel is a post-medieval fortified enclosure situated in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 8480.
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 8480.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Cashel (0.8 km), Carnbane. round cairn with cist (1.1 km), White fort. cashel (3.1 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 Hawick Group, bedrock that formed in the Wenlock. The rock here is wacke.