Ringfort (Rath), Curraghrevagh, Co. Galway

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Curraghrevagh, Co. Galway

In the undulating grassland of Curraghrevagh in County Galway, a low circular earthwork sits quietly in a field, its edges partly absorbed into the agricultural landscape around it.

It is not dramatic to look at, but that subtlety is precisely what makes it worth attention. This is a rath, a type of ringfort that once served as a farmstead enclosure during the early medieval period in Ireland, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands of them survive across the country, though many have been ploughed out or built over; this one endures, if partially.

The enclosure is subcircular in plan, measuring roughly 26 metres north to south and 24.5 metres east to west. It is defined by a bank and an external fosse, which is the ditch dug to create the bank material, a standard arrangement in rath construction. The bank itself survives along the northern and eastern arc, running from the north-west through east to south-south-west. Where the bank has degraded or been lost, a natural or man-made scarp continues to define the boundary. The fosse remains visible on the southern and western sides, from south through west to west-north-west. The monument is described as being in fair condition, which in archaeological terms means structurally identifiable but not pristine. Field walls, built at some later point in the post-medieval period, cut across the monument at its south-south-west and north-west edges, a common fate for ringforts that survived long enough to be incorporated into later farming patterns without being entirely cleared away.

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