Ringfort (Rath), Carrowroe, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
A gap in an ancient earthwork is easy to overlook, but at Carrowroe in County Galway it carries particular weight.
The entrance on the eastern side of this subcircular ringfort, just under four metres wide, is thought to be original, meaning that people have been passing through roughly the same opening for well over a thousand years. That kind of continuity sits quietly in the landscape, unremarked by any signage.
The monument itself is a rath, the Irish term for a roughly circular enclosure built during the early medieval period, typically between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and used as a farmstead or dwelling place for a family of some local standing. This particular example is well preserved and substantial, measuring approximately 59 metres north to south and 56 metres east to west. It sits on an east-facing slope amid undulating grassland, with bog stretching away to the south-west below it. Two banks of earth and stone define the enclosure, separated by an intervening fosse, which is simply a ditch dug to reinforce the defensive effect of the banks on either side of it. A later field bank has been laid across the outer bank between the north and north-east, suggesting that the land continued to be actively managed long after the rath itself fell out of use as a settlement. Two further earthen banks radiate outward from the monument at the south and south-west; their precise relationship to the rath is uncertain, though they are thought to be associated with it in some way, possibly marking out annexed land or enclosing approaches to the site.