Earthwork, Cloonnavarnoge, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Earthwork, Cloonnavarnoge, Co. Galway

In the low-lying grassland of Cloonnavarnoge, a gently swelling oval mound sits in a field, unremarkable at first glance, the sort of slight rise in the ground that a walker might step over without a second thought.

What makes it worth a second thought is what it used to be: a defined enclosure, roughly fifty metres east to west and forty metres north to south, visible enough in the early twentieth century to be recorded on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1920. By the time archaeologists came to measure it on the ground, it had already begun its quiet disappearance.

The transformation from enclosure to mound tells a familiar story in the Irish landscape. A field boundary cut into the western end, truncating whatever bank or earthen edge once described that side of the oval. A field wall was later laid directly over the mound itself, further softening and obscuring its original shape. What survives now measures approximately fifty-five metres east to west and forty-two metres north to south, slightly larger in recorded dimension than the mapped enclosure, possibly because the collapse and spread of material has widened its footprint over time. Enclosures of this type in County Galway range considerably in origin and purpose, from early medieval ringforts used as farmsteads to much older ceremonial or funerary sites, and without excavation it is not possible to say with any confidence which category this one belongs to. The landscape around it, undulating and low-lying, offers no obvious clues.

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Pete F
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