A-Z Placefinder
Towns of Clare
Newmarket on fergus —County Clare
On the threshold of Shannon Airport, the village is a bridge between ancient and modern Ireland. Close-by is the Iron Agehilltop fort at Mooghaun where one of Europe's biggest find of gold objects from the Bronze Age was unearthed. Further along the road is Dromoland Castle , onetime seat of the O'Brien earls and converted to hotel luxury by Irish-American industrialist, Bernard McDonagh. Ralahine, on the other side of the village, has 16th century castle remains and gives its name to a pioneering 1830s rural co-operative initiative.
Access to Mooghaun Fort is by foot via a forestry car park signposted off the N18 road between Newmarket-on-Fergus and Dromoland. This famous Iron Age fort is regarded as one of our most remarkable antiquities.
It has three stone walls of which the outermost, oval in outline, measures 450m X 300m'. It encloses 18 hectares. In a cutting made for the Limerick to Ennis railway in 1854, an important discovery of gold ornaments (gorgets, necklets, bracelets of the Bronze Age) was made near Mooghaun Fort. This, the 'Great Clare Find', was one of the largest ever made in Western Europe.
