Ringfort (Rath), Kilcloghans, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
On the crest of a ridge in the grasslands of Kilcloghans, in north County Galway, the remains of an early medieval ringfort survive in a state that rewards close attention rather than casual glance.
Most of what once defined this enclosure has vanished into the ground, yet what little persists speaks to the particular logic of how these sites were built and why so many of them have quietly dissolved back into the landscape around them.
The site is a rath, a type of ringfort formed by one or more earthen banks with a ditch, known as a fosse, dug between them. This example was originally roughly circular, with a diameter of around forty metres, and was defined by two banks and an intervening fosse. Of that circuit, meaningful traces of the banks survive only from the south-west, through the west, and around to the north-west. On the eastern and south-eastern arc, only a scarp, a natural-looking slope in the ground, now marks where the enclosure ran. Elsewhere, nothing visible remains. To complicate matters further, later agricultural fieldwalls cut directly across the monument at its northern and southern ends, a common fate for prehistoric and early medieval earthworks in areas that remained in active farming use across many centuries. Ringforts of this kind were typically built during the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries, and served as enclosed farmsteads for a single family or small community, the banks and ditch offering a degree of protection for livestock and household alike.
Visitors who make their way to the ridge will find a site that asks something of the eye. The most legible portion is the western arc, where the earthworks retain enough form to suggest the original scale of the enclosure. The eastern side, reduced to a gentle scarp in the turf, is easier to miss entirely. The fieldwalls that cross the site at north and south are a useful navigational guide, marking roughly where the monument begins to fade.