Ringfort (Rath), Cloonkeen, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Cloonkeen, Co. Galway

On the north-facing slope of Slieve Dart in County Galway, a circular earthwork sits quietly in grassland, its outlines softened by centuries of weathering and agricultural use.

What marks it out is not dramatic visibility but rather its peculiar accompaniment: a trackway that curves around the outer edge of the enclosure from the north around to the east, as though worn into the hillside by generations of feet that once had reason to skirt, rather than enter, the enclosure itself.

The site is a rath, a type of circular earthen enclosure built during the early medieval period in Ireland, typically used as a defended farmstead by a single family or small community. This example measures roughly 32 metres in diameter and is defined today by a degraded scarp, the remains of what was once a more substantial bank and ditch. It was recorded by Neary in 1914, noted at that time as entry number 68 in a catalogue of local antiquities. The surrounding grassland and the eroded nature of the scarp suggest the site has been under pressure from farming activity for a considerable time, leaving only the broad shape of the original enclosure legible in the landscape.

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Pete F
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