Ringfort (Cashel), Pollacappul, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
On a low hillock rising out of level grassland near Pollacappul in County Galway, a roughly circular enclosure sits in a state of quiet dissolution.
What was once a cashel, a ringfort built from dry-laid stone rather than earth and turf, is now little more than a series of grassed-over mounds and buried walls. Without knowing what to look for, a person could walk across it without registering anything out of the ordinary.
The enclosure measures approximately 46 metres north to south and 42 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example of its type. Cashels of this kind were typically constructed during the early medieval period in Ireland, serving as enclosed farmsteads or defended residences for local families of some standing. The outer wall, now reduced to a low grassy swell, still shows traces of an external batter at the north-north-west, meaning the stonework once sloped outward at the base to give the wall greater stability and a more imposing profile. A modern field wall cuts through the monument at the north-east and south, the kind of agricultural intrusion that has altered countless sites across the Irish landscape over the past few centuries. Inside, a stony bank about 34 metres long runs from north-east to south-west through the northern half of the interior; it may be original to the site rather than a later addition, though the matter is not settled. The most legible surviving feature is set into the inner face of the enclosing wall at the north-west: the stone foundations of a rectangular structure, roughly 11 metres long and 4 metres wide, aligned north-west to south-east. It may have been a house, the domestic core of whatever small community once sheltered within these walls.