Enclosure, Loughbown, Co. Galway

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Loughbown, Co. Galway

In a field of undulating grassland near Loughbown in County Galway, the ground holds the faint outline of something that was once deliberately bounded and defined.

What survives is a subcircular enclosure, roughly 54 metres north to south and 49 metres east to west, though calling it well-preserved would be generous. Later field boundaries have cut across it, a scarp has replaced much of what was once a proper bank along the southern and western sides, and the landscape has quietly been doing its best to absorb it for centuries.

Enclosures of this kind are scattered across Ireland and typically date from the early medieval period, though without excavation it is impossible to be certain. They are sometimes described as ringforts, the general term for a farmstead enclosed by an earthen bank and, often, an external fosse, which is simply a ditch dug to reinforce the boundary and emphasise the separation between the domestic interior and the world outside. Here, the fosse is most legible along the northern and eastern arc. Traces of an outer bank also survive from the north-north-east around to the east-north-east, suggesting this may once have been a more substantial enclosure than what now meets the eye. A cluster of earthworks immediately to the west may be associated with the main monument, though the relationship between them remains unclear.

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Pete F
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