Ringfort, Castlegar, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort, Castlegar, Co. Galway

In the deciduous woodland at Castlegar in County Galway, a ringfort is quietly losing its argument with time.

What remains is an oval rath, a type of enclosed farmstead common across early medieval Ireland, typically formed by one or more earthen banks with a ditch, known as a fosse, dug between them. This one once measured roughly fifty metres east to west and forty metres north to south, making it a reasonably substantial example of its kind. Two banks and an intervening fosse once defined its circuit, but the structure has been significantly disrupted, and large sections have vanished entirely.

The cause of the damage is quarrying, which has removed the inner bank and fosse at the north-west and across a broad arc running from the north-east through east to south-east. Only a portion of the outer bank survives, holding its shape from the north-west through to the north-east. Everywhere else, the ground gives nothing away. The woodland that now covers the site would once have been cleared land; raths were working enclosures, most likely protecting a farmstead and its livestock during the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries. That a second enclosure sits approximately fifty metres to the west adds a degree of interest, suggesting this was not an isolated feature in the landscape but part of a broader pattern of settlement or land use.

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Pete F
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