Enclosure, Caltragh, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Enclosures
In the undulating grassland on the lower south-eastern slopes of a hill in Caltragh, a field fence cuts straight through what was once a circular enclosure, bisecting a monument that was already, by any measure, well on its way to disappearing.
What survives is a faint arc of a denuded bank, tracing the western, northern, and south-eastern portions of a circle roughly 21.5 metres across. The rest has been absorbed into the working landscape of modern agriculture.
When the first edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map was produced in the nineteenth century, the enclosure was recorded as a more complete feature, with a diameter of approximately 30 metres. Circular enclosures of this kind are among the most common monument types in the Irish countryside; they are generally understood as the remains of enclosed farmsteads or settlement sites, often dating to the early medieval period, though some have prehistoric origins. The difference between the 30-metre measurement on the old map and the 21.5-metre arc visible on the ground today reflects both the natural erosion of the earthen bank over time and the cumulative effect of agricultural activity, including, most visibly, the field fence that now cuts across the monument at its north-north-east and south-west sides.