Summary: Cashels and Raths
Key dates:
During the late Iron Age there was a fashion for building simple stone enclosures which may number thousands in Ireland. The fact that these are referred to as forts suggests that there was some form of defence in the mind of their builders. Most had underground chambers called souterrains. These were stone built passages entered via a trap door and used to hide from invaders or as storage larders.
When a rath was made of stone it was called a cashel. Slightly larger and more defensive than a cashel was a caher and a dun. These names have been incorporated into many Irish placenames.
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