Ringfort, Grange, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
What remains of this site in Grange, County Galway, is easy to overlook precisely because so little of it survives above ground.
It is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of roughly circular enclosure defined by earthen banks and ditches that served as a farmstead during the early medieval period, broadly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Tens of thousands of them once dotted the Irish landscape, and many have been reduced over the centuries by ploughing, drainage work, and simple neglect to faint impressions in the soil.
This particular example measures approximately 28.5 metres in diameter and was originally defined by two concentric banks with a fosse, or ditch, running between them. A double-banked arrangement of this kind would have indicated a site of some local status, since the additional labour required to construct a second circuit suggested resources and social standing. Today, the outer bank survives only along a partial arc running from the north-north-west, through north, and around to the east. The inner features are poorly preserved. The site sits roughly 230 metres west-north-west of a second ringfort in the same townland, a proximity that was not unusual; ringforts frequently cluster in areas that were productive farming land, and their paired or grouped occurrence often reflects the settlement patterns of related households across several generations.