Ringfort (Rath), Cooracurkia, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
A south-facing slope in Cooracurkia, County Galway holds a ringfort that is almost, but not quite, round.
Most raths, the earthen or stone-banked enclosures that served as farmsteads for early medieval Irish families, conform to a roughly circular plan. This one is subrectangular, measuring approximately 45 metres west-northwest to east-southeast and 43.5 metres north-northeast to south-southwest, giving it a slightly squared-off character that sets it gently apart from the thousands of more uniformly circular examples scattered across the Irish landscape.
The enclosure is defined by a bank of earth and stone, and survives in fair condition. What complicates the picture is an external fosse, a defensive ditch, that wraps around the monument from the west-southwest through to the north-east. This ditch appears to be of modern rather than early medieval origin, which raises quiet questions about how and why someone later saw fit to dig around an already ancient structure. Whether it was land drainage, boundary marking, or something else entirely, the notes do not say. Inside the enclosure, positioned roughly in the centre, is a possible souterrain. Souterrains are underground stone-lined passages or chambers, typically associated with early medieval ringforts, and thought to have been used for storage, refuge, or both. Their presence within a rath is not uncommon, but locating one here, beneath the grass of a Galway hillside, adds a layer of depth, quite literally, to what might otherwise seem like a modest earthwork.