Caher, Cahermorris, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
In the undulating grassland of Cahermorris in County Galway, a rough circle of tumbled stone barely rises above ground level.
What was once a cashel, a type of early medieval stone-walled enclosure used as a farmstead or minor fortification, has collapsed so thoroughly that its defining wall now survives only as a rubble spread, two to two and a half metres wide but rarely more than thirty centimetres high. The interior has long since been taken over by trees. It is the kind of site that rewards patience rather than immediate spectacle.
The cashel measures roughly thirty metres across on its north-south axis, and while its roughly circular outline can still be traced, the detail that draws particular attention lies in its north-western quadrant. There, a subrectangular depression, about six and a half metres long and nearly four metres wide, runs on a north-west to south-east alignment. Stone-facing is visible along its eastern side. This depression may represent a souterrain, an underground passage or chamber of the sort commonly associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland, typically used for storage or, in some interpretations, as a place of refuge. The site was noted by the antiquarian T. J. Westropp in 1919 and referenced again by Killanin and Duignan in 1967, suggesting it has attracted at least passing scholarly attention across the decades, even as the fabric of the monument itself has continued to erode.