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Slievehanny is a cashel and souterrain of early Christian date located in County Down, Northern Ireland. The monument comprises a stone-built ringfort with an associated underground chamber, representing a form of domestic settlement characteristic of the early medieval period in Ireland. The cashel's construction demonstrates the defensive and status-conscious architecture of Christian communities during this era, when such fortified homesteads served prominent families or monastic personnel.
The site sits upon bedrock of the Gala Group, a wacke formation laid down during the Telychian period of the Ordovician, which provided the stone readily available for the cashel's construction. The souterrain, or artificial underground passage, was a distinctive feature of such settlements, serving functions that likely combined storage, refuge and ritual significance within the community's domestic arrangements.
The monument is protected as a scheduled historic monument under reference 7983 by the Historic Environment Division, recognising its archaeological importance and preservation as evidence of early Christian settlement patterns and building practices in Ulster. The survival of both the cashel and its associated souterrain provides valuable material testimony to daily life and social organisation in early medieval northern Ireland.
Slievehanny. cashel & souterrain is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 7983. View the official record →
Slievehanny is a cashel and souterrain of early Christian date located in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 7983.
Slievehanny. cashel & souterrain 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.
Slievehanny. cashel & souterrain 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 7983.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Cashel & souterrain (2.9 km), D-shaped enclosure - possibly cemetery (4.4 km), Cashel & souterrain (4.8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Slievehanny. cashel & souterrain'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.
Slievehanny. cashel & souterrain stands on Gala Group, bedrock that formed in the Telychian. The rock here is wacke.