Ringfort, Toormore, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
On a low but conspicuous hillock in the grasslands of Toormore, there sits a ringfort that time and quarrying have reduced to something barely legible in the landscape.
What survives is subcircular in outline, roughly 26 metres across at its widest, and the enclosing element that once defined it is now only partially a built feature at all. Along the eastern and northern arcs, a bank of earth and stone still traces the old boundary, but elsewhere the builders, or more likely later quarry workers, simply cut a scarp into the hillside and let the slope do the work.
Ringforts, known in Irish as raths or lios, were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically enclosing a farmstead and its immediate outbuildings within a raised earthen bank. This one at Toormore preserves traces of two features within its interior that give it a quiet interest beyond the eroded perimeter. One is the remains of a souterrain, an underground passage or chamber built from stone, generally thought to have served as a cool store for food or as a place of refuge, and occasionally as both. The other is a possible internal division, suggesting the interior may once have been compartmentalised, though the evidence is faint. What quarrying activity occurred here, and when, is not recorded, but the scarped sections of the enclosure indicate the site was treated as a practical resource at some point rather than left undisturbed.