Caherballykinvarga Traditional Cache

Caherballykinvarga must have been an impressive sight in its day. It consists of an area approx 130' x 150' enclosed by a wall made up of three sections. The middle wall 4 feet thick, and the two outer walls 5 feet thick, and the whole structure surrounded by a 50-foot deep 'Chevaux de frise'. The Chevaux de frise itself consists of large stones place upright into the ground, and smaller stones put in between them, effectively making the ground outside the fort impassable.

The entrance to the enclosure would have been through a narrow walled and sunken passage through the defensive structure.

Today you can still see the Chevaux de frise, and access is really limited to the south of the fort, but just to get an impression of what it must have been like to try and storm this homestead, try to access it from the north.

This fort is probably of early medieval construction, and may have been the capital of the Corcu Modruad chiefdom, a chiefdom that occupied most of north Clare. At the height of its power it may have stretched from Galway Bay to present day Ennis.