Enclosure, Ballyglass, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Ballyglass, Co. Galway

In a field of grassland near the townland boundary at Ballyglass in County Galway, the land holds the faint outline of something old and not immediately legible.

What survives is a subcircular enclosure, roughly 36 metres east to west and 28 metres north to south, its shape just discernible through a degraded earthen bank that has slumped considerably over time. On the eastern, southern, and south-south-western sides, a shallow flat-bottomed fosse remains, a fosse being a ditch typically dug alongside an earthen bank to reinforce a boundary or defensive perimeter. A field boundary extends outward from the bank to the north-north-west, suggesting that later agricultural organisation has grown around the older structure, perhaps even borrowed from it.

Enclosures of this general type, defined by an earthen bank and fosse, are among the more common but still poorly understood features of the Irish archaeological landscape. They could have served as farmsteads, assembly places, or enclosures for livestock, and their dating without excavation remains difficult. What is clear in this case is that the monument has suffered considerably, its bank degraded to the point where it reads more as a slight rise in the ground than a deliberate construction. The surrounding grassland, and its position near a townland boundary, are details that often characterise such sites: marginal land, edges of things, places that escaped the plough only because they were inconvenient rather than respected.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Enclosure, Ballyglass, Co. Galway. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement