Ringfort (Rath), Rahyconor, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Rahyconor, Co. Galway

Sitting on a low hillock in open grassland in County Galway, this circular earthwork is easy to miss and easier still to misread.

What looks at first like a natural rise in the field turns out to be a rath, a type of ringfort built during the early medieval period, typically between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and used as a defended farmstead for a family of some local standing. The bank and surrounding fosse, which is the external ditch dug to reinforce the enclosure, survive well enough to trace the full circuit of the site, even where the ditch itself has been reduced to little more than a change in the colour and texture of the vegetation.

The rath measures around 45 metres in diameter, placing it comfortably within the typical range for a single-family enclosure of its type. The fosse is clearest from the north-west, running around through the north and down to the south-west, where it remains as a physical depression. Elsewhere, the ground has settled enough that the ditch shows only as a vegetation band, the slight difference in moisture and soil depth coaxing a subtly distinct growth that traces the original line. There are also traces of what may be an outer bank on the western side, which would suggest a slightly more elaborate defensive arrangement than the basic single-bank form. The gap on the eastern side is thought to be the original entrance, a detail that fits a broader pattern seen at many Irish ringforts, where the entrance was typically oriented towards the east.

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Pete F
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