Ringfort (Rath), Carra, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Carra, Co. Galway

Most ringforts announce themselves clearly enough, a raised ring of earthwork visible from the road, recognisable even to a passing eye.

The one at Carra in County Galway asks rather more of the observer. Only a partial arc of its enclosing bank survives, running from south through west to north, and the rest has either been lost to the ground or obscured by later disturbance. Quarry pits have been dug into the northern and north-north-eastern section of the bank, and a shed and silage pit now occupy the north-eastern corner of the site. What remains is fragmentary enough that without prior knowledge you might cross the field and leave none the wiser.

The site sits on a gentle rise in undulating grassland, which is exactly where early medieval farmers tended to build these enclosures. A rath, as ringforts of this earthwork type are known, was typically a circular bank and ditch enclosing a farmstead, used for both settlement and the protection of livestock. They were built in their thousands across Ireland between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries, and tens of thousands still survive in some form. This one measures approximately 28.5 metres in diameter, placing it toward the smaller end of the scale. A narrow berm, the flat ledge of ground between the inner bank and an outer boundary feature, is traceable immediately outside the bank along the southern to western arc, suggesting the enclosure once had a more complete and deliberate form than what now meets the eye.

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