Enclosure, Drumharsna, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Enclosures
What makes this enclosure at Drumharsna quietly puzzling is its shape.
Most early Irish enclosed settlements are roughly circular, but this one is almost square, measuring around 37 metres on one axis and 35 on the other. It sits just to the north of a rath, the term for a ringfort of earthen or stone construction that was a common form of enclosed farmstead in early medieval Ireland, and the proximity of the two monuments raises questions about how they related to one another, whether in time, function, or ownership.
The enclosure is defined by two concentric stony banks with a fosse, or ditch, running between them. The inner bank survives to an external height of around 1.6 metres, though its internal face has been worn down to almost nothing; the outer bank presents the opposite profile, rising steeply on the inside but barely projecting above the surrounding ground level on the exterior. This double-bank arrangement with an intervening fosse suggests something more than a simple field boundary, though the enclosure's exact purpose remains unclear. It has not escaped damage: quarrying has removed much of the southern half of the eastern side, and reclaimed spoil has been dumped into the south-western and north-western corners. Within the interior, the remains of a ruined rectangular house sit in the north-western quadrant, and two further possible house sites overlie the line of the fosse on the eastern side, suggesting later settlement within or across the earlier boundaries. Drumharsna Castle, recorded as early as 1959 by McCaffrey, stands around 180 metres to the south-east, and it is possible the enclosure was at some point associated with it, though the relationship between the two has not been firmly established. The site is protected under the National Monuments Acts, carrying a preservation order dating from 1971.