This one in Stradbally, County Galway, is a more ambiguous presence. Field boundaries have cut away the eastern and southern portions of the enclosure, leaving only the north-western quadrant intact and visible above ground. What remains is an arc of earth and stone bank, roughly 26 metres long, curving from west to north, its width running to about 3.2 metres and its surviving height modest at well under a metre on either face. Vegetation further obscures what little is left. Without some knowledge of what you are looking at, it would be easy to walk past it entirely.

Raths, as these earthen ringforts are commonly known, were the dominant settlement form in early medieval Ireland, typically enclosing a homestead and its associated outbuildings within a raised bank and external ditch. This example, estimated at roughly 46 metres east to west and 34 metres north to south if complete, falls within the normal size range for a single-family farmstead. What gives the site an additional layer of interest is the presence of a souterrain in the area of its south-western quadrant. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage or chamber, built beneath or adjacent to a ringfort, most likely for storage and possibly for refuge. Their construction required considerable effort, which suggests the occupants of this particular enclosure had reason to invest in the site beyond simple seasonal use. The interior of the rath slopes gently towards the south-south-east, a detail that may reflect both the original ground conditions and the accumulated settlement activity of whoever once lived here.