Ringfort (Cashel), Carrowclogh, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
In the low-lying marshy grassland of Carrowclogh, a roughly circular wall of drystone has been slowly disappearing into the landscape for centuries.
The cashel, a type of ringfort defined by a stone rather than an earthen enclosure, measures about 41 metres in diameter, though much of its circuit is now buried under dense overgrowth or overlaid by a later field wall running from the north-west around through the east to the south-east. A gap on the east-south-east side may be the original entrance, though the surrounding deterioration makes certainty difficult.
The site has been known to researchers since at least 1952, when it was recorded by McCaffrey. Within the interior, a linear depression in the south-west quadrant, roughly 10 metres long, 2.5 metres wide, and about 65 centimetres deep, has been tentatively identified as the remains of a souterrain. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage or chamber, typically associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland and thought to have served for storage or as a place of refuge. A ruined rectangular stone structure also abuts the monument on the south-east side, though this is considered a later addition rather than part of the original cashel. Taken together, these elements suggest a site that saw continued use or modification well beyond its initial construction, even if the precise sequence of that activity is now difficult to unpick from the surface alone.