Deerpark Fort, Eyrecourt Demesne, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Deerpark Fort, Eyrecourt Demesne, Co. Galway

On the south-eastern slopes of Redmond Hill, within the grounds of Eyrecourt Demesne in County Galway, sits an early medieval enclosure that has been quietly absorbed into the designed landscape around it.

What makes it quietly odd is the combination: an ancient rath, one of the thousands of roughly circular earthwork enclosures built across Ireland during the early medieval period as farmsteads or places of local status, now punctuated at regular intervals by planted whitethorn trees, giving it a groomed, almost ornamental quality that sits at some distance from its original purpose.

The enclosure is oval in plan, measuring approximately 42 metres east to west and 35 metres north to south. It is defined by a low stony bank, and at the northern and east-south-eastern sections there are still traces of inner wall-facing, suggesting that the bank was once revetted with stone. A fosse, the external ditch that typically surrounds a rath and would have reinforced the sense of enclosure and status of the site, remains visible along the south-eastern through to the northern arc. On the western and northern sides, however, it has been considerably widened, most likely as part of the landscaping work carried out when the demesne was being laid out or improved. A gap of roughly 2.5 metres at the east-south-east may be the original entrance through which people and livestock once passed. The site survives in fair condition overall, though the landscaping modifications mean that reading it purely as an early medieval structure requires a degree of imagination.

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Pete F
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