House - indeterminate date, Caherglassaun, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
House
Inside a rath at Caherglassaun in County Galway, a low grassed-over bank traces the outline of what was once a house.
A rath is a circular earthen enclosure, typically dating from the early medieval period, which served as a farmstead boundary, and this one contains at least two possible house sites tucked within its interior. The one in the northern sector is almost square in plan, measuring roughly five metres long by four and a half metres wide, defined by a stony bank that runs up against the inner face of the surrounding enclosure. It is easy to overlook, being little more than a slight rise in the ground, but the geometry is deliberate and the stones are there if you look for them.
What makes this site quietly interesting is the detail preserved at ground level. A couple of stones protrude through the sod within the house outline, suggesting an internal division, perhaps a partition between sleeping and working areas, or between people and livestock. A second house site lies in the western sector of the same rath, which hints at either a larger household than usual or a site that was reused and extended over time. No firm date has been established for the structures, which is itself telling. The rath they occupy can be placed within the broad early medieval tradition of Irish settlement, but the houses within it remain archaeologically ambiguous, their precise period unresolved.