Enclosure, Derrymaclaughna, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Enclosures
A low ring of earth in a Galway field might not arrest the eye, but this modest circular enclosure at Derrymaclaughna carries the quiet logic of a landscape that was once carefully organised.
Roughly 13.6 metres across and defined by an earthen bank that has subsided considerably over time, it sits about 50 metres to the north-east of a castle, a proximity that is unlikely to be coincidental. The gap visible on its south-south-east side looks to be a modern intrusion rather than an original entrance, which means the enclosure's intended form is still, just about, legible beneath the wear of centuries.
Circular earthen enclosures of this kind are scattered across Ireland and belong to a long tradition of enclosed settlement and agricultural organisation. They could serve many purposes, from a ringfort enclosing a farmstead to a stock enclosure or a feature associated with a nearby defended site. The castle nearby, whatever its current condition, suggests that at some period this corner of north Galway was a place of some local consequence, and the traces of earthen banks that abut the enclosure at the north-west, east, and south-west hint that it once formed part of a more extensive arrangement of boundaries or enclosures on the ground. Whether that network was contemporary with the castle or represents an earlier or later phase of activity, the surviving earthworks cannot say on their own.