Ringfort (Cashel), Treanbaun, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
In a field at Treanbaun in north County Galway, the ground rises and falls in ways that reward a second look.
What appears at first to be a natural undulation in the grassland is, on closer inspection, the collapsed remains of a cashel, a type of ringfort built from drystone walling rather than earthen banks. These enclosures, common across Ireland from the early medieval period, served as farmsteads for families of some local standing, the stone wall providing both a boundary and a degree of protection for people, livestock, and grain.
This particular cashel sits on a south-facing slope, with bogland stretching away to the south. It is oval in plan, measuring roughly fifty metres east to west and forty-three and a half metres north to south, dimensions that suggest a reasonably substantial enclosure in its day. The drystone wall that once defined it has largely collapsed and been swallowed by grass and time, though the northern stretch is the best preserved section, where the line of the original structure is most legible. Beyond those bare facts, the site keeps its history to itself; no associated finds or historical records appear to have been linked to it in any detail.