On a south-east-facing slope in Blindwell, Co. Galway, a circular rath sits in otherwise level grassland, and roughly thirty metres to its south-east, a second ringfort occupies the same landscape. Paired or clustered ringforts are known elsewhere in Ireland, and their proximity tends to raise questions that archaeology can note but rarely answer with certainty: whether they were contemporary, whether they housed related families, whether one preceded the other by generations.

A rath, in general terms, is an early medieval enclosed settlement, typically circular, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches. This example measures about 24.5 metres in diameter and is defined by two banks with an intervening fosse, the ditch that separates them. It is poorly preserved. The inner bank survives at the south-east and from west to north, but elsewhere the enclosure is marked only by a scarp, a slope in the ground rather than a distinct raised bank. The fosse and outer bank are clearest at the north-west. A field boundary, presumably post-medieval, cuts across the monument at both the north-north-east and south-south-west, which helps explain some of the deterioration. The rath sits on a gentle hillside slope, a small anomaly in terrain that is otherwise flat pasture, which would have made it a locally prominent feature in its day even if it registers now as little more than a subtle rise in the grass.