Ringfort (Cashel), Kiltullagh, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Cashel), Kiltullagh, Co. Galway

At first glance, there is little here to catch the eye.

The ground rises and dips in ways that seem unremarkable, the stones are grassed over, and a concrete rainwater tank sits awkwardly into what was once a carefully constructed wall. Yet this unassuming field in Kiltullagh, County Galway, contains the eroded outline of a cashel, a type of ringfort enclosed by a dry-stone wall rather than an earthen bank, that has quietly absorbed centuries of agricultural life around and even within it.

The site was identified through aerial reconnaissance by Markus Casey, whose work picked out what ground-level observation alone might easily miss. The cashel is subcircular in plan, measuring roughly 54.6 metres north to south and 45.5 metres east to west, placing it on the larger end of the scale for such enclosures. Its defining element is a grassed-over stone bank that runs from the south, around through the west, and continues to the northeast; where the bank has disappeared entirely, a natural rocky scarp takes over the role of enclosure. Inside, the western sector may contain the remains of a house site, and a low bank approximately 30 metres long runs eastward from it, suggesting the interior was once divided into separate functional areas. A second possible house site lies about 26 metres to the north, and a further enclosure sits roughly 100 metres beyond that, hinting at a wider pattern of settlement in the surrounding landscape. The cashel itself falls within the southern portion of a broader field system, meaning the land around it has been parcelled and worked for a very long time.

The concrete tank and trough built into the northeastern wall are a reminder of how continuously these ancient enclosures have been pressed into practical service, each generation finding some use for the ready-made boundary that earlier people left behind.

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