Staigue Stone Fort
Located just off the Ring of Kerry, Staigue Stone Fort is one of the Iveragh Peninsula’s most famous monuments. Its name derives from the Irish Cathair na Steige, with steige perhaps meaning ‘a strip of land’. Though the famous antiquarian T.J. Westropp reported in 1897 that the locals knew the fort as Staig an air, which he translated as ‘Windy House’, or ‘Temple of the Father,’ or perhaps more dramatically, ’The Staired Place of Slaughter’. This large drystone fort stands at a strategic location at the head of a river valley, with a fine view down to Kenmare Bay. Staigue is one of a number of stone forts on the Iveragh Peninsula, like Loher, Cahergal, Lecanabuaile, and another nearby at Derrynane. Though the exact date of Staigue has never been conclusively proven through excavation, the interpretation panel on site states that it was ‘built in the early centuries AD before Christianity came to Ireland‘. However, like most other stone forts it is perhaps more likely to date to the early medieval period, probably somewhere around the 8th–10th century AD.
Staigue Stone Fort consists of an enormous circular rampart formed from a well built drystone wall. The wall is formed from drystone masonry facings that encompass a rubble core. The wall stands up to 6m (19 feet) high in places. The wall has a slight batter, so it is wider around the base with the wall narrowing from around 4m to around 2m at the top. There is a lintelled entrance passageway at the southern side of the fort, that gives access into the interior. While there are no obvious remains of structures inside the fort, the interior offers access to several flights of steps on the interior of the walls that lead to the top of the walls.
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Located just off the Ring of Kerry, Staigue Stone Fort is one of the Iveragh Peninsula’s most famous monuments. Its name derives from the Irish Cathair na Steige, with steige perhaps meaning ‘a strip of land’. Though the famous antiquarian T.J. Westropp reported in 1897 that the locals knew the fort as Staig an air, which he translated as ‘Windy House’, or ‘Temple of the Father,’ or perhaps more dramatically, ’The Staired Place of Slaughter’. This large drystone fort stands at a strategic location at the head of a river valley, with a fine view down to Kenmare Bay. Staigue is one of a number of stone forts on the Iveragh Peninsula, like Loher, Cahergal, Lecanabuaile, and another nearby at Derrynane. Though the exact date of Staigue has never been conclusively proven through excavation, the interpretation panel on site states that it was ‘built in the early centuries AD before Christianity came to Ireland‘. However, like most other stone forts it is perhaps more likely to date to the early medieval period, probably somewhere around the 8th–10th century AD.
Staigue Stone Fort consists of an enormous circular rampart formed from a well built drystone wall. The wall is formed from drystone masonry facings that encompass a rubble core. The wall stands up to 6m (19 feet) heigh in places. The wall has a slight batter, so it is wider around the base with the wall narrowing from around 4m to around 2m at the top. There is a lintelled entrance passageway at the southern side of the fort, that gives access into the interior. While there are no obvious remains of structures inside the fort, the interior offers access to several flights of steps on the interior of the walls that lead to the top of the walls.
For practical information about visiting this site Click Here
Aerial view of Staigue Stone Fort in its landscape setting • Kerry
The History of Staigue Fort
The view from the fort down to Kenmare Bay • Staigue Stone Fort
At the base of the walls, two intramural souterrain-type chambers can be accessed to those who don’t suffer from claustrophobia. The north-western one features a lintelled entrance that leads into a small chamber. The drystone coursed walls rise vertically to a height of 80cm from which point they begin to corbel. This allows you to stand up inside, as the roof is closed with one large slab at around 2m high. The second chamber is located nearby, more in the south-south-west of the fort. It is similar to the first chamber, though the lower roof makes it feel smaller.
The fort was further protected by an exterior defensive ditch and bank, today much reduced from its original height. This series of features is similar to that of the Grianán of Aileach in Donegal, and like that site, it may be that Staigue also has a long history of activity. Only targeted excavation could reveal the chronology and dating sequence of the outer enclosure and rampart to see if they were contemporary with the stone fort.
‘Where high on the brown moor, looking o’er the sea,
Staigue’s old ghost-like hill-fort lone and dark we see,
Where its crossing streamlets there united flow
Those were pleasant places in the long ago’
The Pleasant Places of the Long Ago, Ellen Fitzsimon, 1875.
Staigue Stone Fort is thought to have been a high status residence for an elite family in early medieval Ireland. The status of the fort is supported by a number of artefacts that were discovered within the environs of the fort. A gold dress-fastener of Bronze Age type was found in the 19th century ‘in or at the outer wall of Staigue Fort’. A whetstone was found ‘near’ the site in 1931, and a horn spoon was found in one of the mural chambers of the stone fort in 1956, and is now on display in Cork Public Museum.
The view from the fort down to Kenmare Bay • Staigue Stone Fort
In its later history, the walls of the fort were put to work as a cattle pen for a time. Before Staigue Stone Fort came to the attention of the public through the account of General Charles Vallancey, called “An Account of the Ancient Stone Amphitheatre lately discovered in the County of Kerry,” published in Dublin in 1812. As there was no defensive rampart, Vallencey concluded that the fort was an amphitheatre, similar to those of Roman origin in Britain and the continent. During the 19th century, there was a rekindled interest in ancient stone forts like Staigue or Dún Aonghasa on Inis Mór. This was partly an effort to encourage and nurture the beginnings of tourism to Ireland, and partly through political interests. These ancient stone forts of Ireland served as a counterpoint, a sort of Gaelic bastion of ancient Irish civilisation in contrast to the Norman or English colonial castles like Trim, Cahir or Kilkenny. This led to a number of the stone forts being restored and consolidated. At Staigue, while reconstruction and reconsolidation certainly took place, it went largely undocumented, and it is difficult today to see clearly what parts of the wall were altered.
There is a rich seam of local folklore at Staigue. According to one story in the Legends of Kerry by Thomas Crofton Croker, the fairies of Staigue Stone Fort had a rivalry with those of Cahergal on the other side of the peninsula. The rival bands of the daoine sídhe competed in ferocious games of Gaelic football against each other on moonlit nights. A local man, Coneen Dannihy, once joined in the game and scored two goals to help the fairies of Cahergal to victory. When his mother prevented him from taking part in the next game, he was cursed by the fairies and remained prostrate in bed for nine months.
If you can avoid becoming embroiled in otherworldly matches, Staigue Stone Fort is well worth visiting. You can explore it, along with a whole host of historical wonders, with our exclusive itinerary for the Ring of Kerry, available for all Tuatha Members here.
Upper left: the entrance to the fort • Lower left: the walls and staircases • Right: the entrance to a chamber
Top: the entrance to the fort • Middle: the entrance to a chamber • Bottom: the walls and staircases
Staigue Stone Fort Visitor Information
One of the most famous monuments along the Ring of Kerry, Staigue Stone Fort is an atmospheric bastion of early medieval Ireland
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