Sheepfold, Ballynastaig, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Farm Buildings

Sheepfold, Ballynastaig, Co. Galway

At Ballynastaig in County Galway, a small wedge-shaped chamber sits quietly within the wall of an ancient earthen enclosure, its original purpose still a matter of some uncertainty.

The chamber measures roughly two metres in length, one metre wide, and less than a metre in height, dimensions that make it too low for comfortable human use but quite plausible as a shelter for a newborn lamb or a small animal in need of protection. It is the kind of feature that passes unnoticed unless you are already looking for it.

The chamber is built into the enclosing bank of a rath, the word used for a circular or roughly circular earthen ringfort of early medieval Ireland, typically constructed as a defended farmstead between around the fifth and twelfth centuries. Such enclosures were domestic in character, and it is not unusual to find ancillary features incorporated into their banks. An intramural chamber of this kind, meaning one built within the thickness of the enclosing wall or bank rather than freestanding, would have made practical sense in a farming context. The association with sheep or lamb sheltering is suggested by the proportions and the wedge shape, though it remains tentative rather than confirmed.

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