Ringfort (Rath), Derreen, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Derreen, Co. Galway

In a field in Derreen, County Galway, a circular earthwork sits on a north-facing slope, partly swallowed by the ordinary business of farming.

Two field walls cut straight through it, one at the north and one at the south, dividing what was once a unified enclosure into something more like a series of grassy interruptions. It is the kind of place that rewards a second look, once you know what you are seeing.

The monument is a rath, the Irish term for a roughly circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and an external fosse, or ditch, from which the bank material was originally dug. Raths were built primarily during the early medieval period, roughly 500 to 1000 AD, and served as enclosed farmsteads, offering a degree of status and security to the families who occupied them. This one measures approximately 41 metres from north to south, making it a fairly typical example of the form, though its condition is poor. The bank and fosse survive best along the southern and western arc, where the earthworks remain legible in the landscape. Elsewhere, centuries of agricultural use have done their work, softening and in places obscuring what remains.

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Pete F
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