Ringfort (Rath), Ballynacourty, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballynacourty, Co. Galway

A low hillock rising out of level farmland near Ballynacourty in County Galway is easy to walk past without a second glance.

What remains on top of it is a ringfort, or rath, though the word "remains" is doing considerable work here. A rath was a circular or subcircular enclosure of earth and stone, used as a farmstead and defended homestead during the early medieval period in Ireland, and thousands survive across the country in varying states of preservation. This one sits toward the less legible end of that scale.

The structure is subcircular, measuring roughly 27.3 metres on its northeast to southwest axis. The defining bank of earth and stone has collapsed, and only survives as a recognisable feature from the north, around through the east, and as far as the west-southwest. On the remaining circuit, what marks the boundary is a scarp, a simple slope in the ground where the edge of the enclosure once stood more firmly. A field boundary, likely a later agricultural addition, runs directly over the bank between the north and northeast sections, further obscuring the original outline. In the interior, a hollow some four metres long and two metres wide is still visible, though what it represents, a pit, a collapsed feature, or something else entirely, is not recorded. The site was noted by McCaffrey in 1952.

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Pete F
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