Ringfort (Cashel), Troscaigh Thiar, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
In the townland of Troscaigh Thiar, in the west of County Galway, sits a cashel: a type of ringfort built from dry-stone walling rather than earthen banks.
Where the more common earthwork ringfort was thrown up from ditched soil and sod, a cashel was constructed stone by stone, and in the rocky landscapes of Connacht that distinction made practical sense. These enclosures, typically dating from the early medieval period roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, served as farmsteads and household compounds for families of varying social rank, their circular walls defining both a working space and a defensible boundary against opportunistic raiding.
The townland name Troscaigh Thiar places this site in Irish-speaking or formerly Irish-speaking territory on the Galway seaboard, a region where cashels appear with some frequency in the landscape, often weathered and grass-grown to the point where they read more as a slight rise in a field than a deliberate construction. Beyond its classification and location, the recorded details for this particular cashel are currently sparse, and little more can be said with confidence about its dimensions, condition, or any associated finds or features.