Ringfort (Rath), Galmoylestown, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Galmoylestown, Co. Westmeath

Two ringforts within forty metres of each other is not the kind of coincidence that happens by accident.

On a south-south-east facing slope of a high ridge in County Westmeath, this earthwork sits in quiet grassland, a small lake lying just fifty metres to its north-east, with open views stretching away to the south-west and west. The pairing of enclosures so close together is a detail that tends to catch the attention of anyone who studies early medieval settlement patterns in Ireland.

A ringfort, sometimes called a rath when built from earth rather than stone, is a roughly circular enclosure dating broadly to the early medieval period, used as a farmstead or high-status residence. This particular example is modest in scale, measuring approximately thirty-one metres in diameter on a north-west to south-east axis. It is defined by a low earthen bank and a wide, shallow external fosse, the fosse being the ditch dug outside the bank whose upcast material was used to build it up. Much of the bank has been almost entirely levelled along its northern arc, though the fosse remains visible on the southern and south-western sides. A possible entrance gap, roughly 3.8 metres wide, survives at the east-south-east. The interior tilts gently eastward, which may reflect both the natural slope of the ridge and centuries of gradual earthmoving. A field fence running north-east to south-west cuts across the south-east portion of the monument; this boundary post-dates 1700, and its presence speaks to the slow, ordinary way that agricultural activity has reshaped the landscape around, and sometimes through, much older features.

The monument appears clearly in aerial photographs taken by Cambridge University in 1968 and 1970, which is how many such low-profile earthworks first came to wider scholarly attention before ground survey became practicable. Seen from the air, the circular cropmark would have been readable in a way that a ground-level walk through a field of grass might not immediately suggest.

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