Ringfort (Rath), Foxhall, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Foxhall, Co. Galway

In the undulating pastureland of Foxhall in County Galway, a low earthen bank traces the rough outline of a circle about forty metres across.

It is not much to look at now, and that is precisely what makes it interesting. This is a rath, a type of ringfort that once served as an enclosed farmstead during the early medieval period in Ireland, typically between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands were built across the country, and hundreds survive in varying states of repair. This one has fared less well than most.

What survives at Foxhall is described as poorly preserved, which in archaeological terms means the original form is still legible but only just. Two field boundaries have since been imposed across it: one cuts through the interior from north-northeast to southeast, and another overlies part of the northern arc. These boundaries almost certainly postdate the ringfort by centuries, laid down as agricultural land was reorganised and redistributed, each new wall or ditch quietly dismantling a little more of the earlier structure. The result is a site that has been written over by subsequent farming life in a way that is itself historically telling. The landscape here has not been static; it has been continuously reshaped, with earlier features absorbed, cut through, or buried under the practicalities of later land use.

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