Lisaniska, Garrylawrence, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Ringforts

Lisaniska, Garrylawrence, Co. Galway

In a field of level grassland in north County Galway, a roughly oval earthwork sits quietly in the landscape, its concentric banks and ditch marking out a space that was once, in all likelihood, somebody's defended farmstead.

The site measures approximately 49 metres north to south and 43 metres east to west, dimensions that place it comfortably within the range of the ringfort tradition, a form of enclosed settlement that proliferated across Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries.

This particular example is a rath, the term used for a ringfort defined by earthen rather than stone construction. What sets it apart from simpler examples is its double-bank arrangement, with an intervening fosse, or ditch, cut between the two earthen ramparts. That additional circuit of bank and ditch would have reinforced both the defensive and the social character of the enclosure, signalling status as much as security. The outer bank has not survived intact; it remains visible only at the south-east of the circuit, where the ground has been kinder to it. The inner works are in fair condition, enough to read the original form without too much imaginative effort.

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