Ringfort (Rath), Loughturk, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Loughturk, Co. Galway

What makes this particular enclosure quietly arresting is not what survives of it, but what surrounds it.

Within a radius of less than a hundred metres, two other ringforts sit in the same undulating pastureland near Loughturk in County Galway, and together the three form a cluster that raises more questions than the landscape readily answers.

The rath at Loughturk is roughly subcircular in plan, measuring approximately 29 metres north to south and 26 metres east to west. A ringfort of this kind is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically dating from somewhere between the fifth and twelfth centuries, in which a family unit lived within a bank of earth or stone raised partly for status and partly for the practical business of keeping livestock secure. This one is defined by a bank of earth and stone and remains in fair condition. A gap roughly two metres wide on the eastern side may be the original entrance, which in many raths faces east or south-east, though erosion and later use can complicate such readings. Two shallow hollows visible just outside the monument to the north and east-south-east appear to be the product of quarrying rather than any original feature of the site. The two neighbouring ringforts, one lying around 85 metres to the west-north-west and another about 90 metres to the south-south-west, suggest this part of Galway was once a settled and reasonably prosperous agricultural landscape, with multiple households establishing themselves in close proximity.

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