Lisroe, Aggard Beg, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
A circular earthwork sitting on a ridge in Aggard Beg has survived remarkably intact, its bank and surrounding fosse still legible in the Galway pastureland after more than a thousand years.
The site is a rath, a type of enclosed farmstead typically built during the early medieval period in Ireland, constructed by raising a circular earthen bank and digging a ditch, or fosse, around the perimeter. Here the ditch sweeps visibly from the west-northwest around through east to south, giving a clear sense of the original enclosure even where some sections have softened over time.
The rath measures 31.4 metres in diameter, placing it within the middle range of such monuments, which vary considerably in size across the Irish landscape. A survey by McCaffrey in 1952 recorded what appeared to be an outer bank in addition to the main one, which would suggest a more elaborate, multivallate construction, but this secondary feature was not confirmed during later inspection. Whether it was obscured by vegetation, ploughing, or simply difficult to distinguish from the surrounding ground is unclear. What remains undisputed is the quality of what is still visible: the principal bank retains enough height and definition to read as a coherent enclosure rather than a faint crop-mark or a vague rise in a field.