House - prehistoric, Knock, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Settlement Sites
On the south-eastern end of Inishbofin, off the Galway coast, a low circular mound sits on a sheltered terrace, barely distinguishable from the surrounding heather unless you are looking for it.
What lies beneath the overgrowth is the remains of a prehistoric circular house, roughly eleven metres in diameter and still standing to a maximum height of about a metre in places. Stone kerbing traces the outer edge, and a cluster of upright stones near the centre of the interior may represent the footings of an internal dividing wall, a feature that would have separated sleeping or storage space from the main living area in the domestic arrangements of the period.
The site was recorded by M. Gibbons and forms part of a wider pattern of prehistoric activity in this corner of the island. Approximately three hundred metres to the north-east, a comparable house site survives, and the two are connected by the remnants of a landscape that once organised this ground into recognisable plots. A long field wall running north to south is visible to the east of the house, partially swallowed by peat over the centuries, and traces of an east-to-west wall survive to the north. A small level area edged with boulders sits just to the south-east of the house itself, possibly an outdoor working space or enclosure. Taken together, these features suggest not an isolated dwelling but a fragment of a broader settled landscape, one in which people divided the land, moved between structures, and worked the ground in ways that the surviving walls still faintly describe.