Enclosure, Caherakeeny, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Caherakeeny, Co. Galway

In a field in North Galway, a low oval ring of earth and stone barely announces itself above the grass.

It measures roughly 35 metres across its east-west axis, and without some knowledge of what to look for, a person could walk past it without a second glance. That near-invisibility is part of what makes it worth attention.

The site at Caherakeeny is a type known as a ringfort or enclosure, a form of enclosed settlement that was widespread across early medieval Ireland, typically used as a farmstead and defined by an earthen bank, a stone wall, or some combination of both. Here, the boundary survives only as a subdued bank of earth and stone, worn down considerably over the centuries. Inside the enclosure, the ground holds the traces of at least two houses, their outlines now little more than low rubble beneath the turf. What makes this particular site slightly unusual is the series of stony banks that radiate outward from the monument, grassed over and easy to miss, suggesting the landscape around the enclosure was once organised in ways that extended beyond the main boundary ring. A second enclosure lies approximately 120 metres to the south-east, hinting that this was not an isolated dwelling but part of a small cluster of related settlement activity in the same area.

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Pete F
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