Enclosure, Doocreggaun, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Enclosures
In a field in North Galway, a circular earthwork sits in the grass, half-erased and easy to overlook.
The enclosure at Doocreggaun is roughly 32 metres in diameter, its defining bank surviving only along an arc running from the south-east, through the west, and around to the north-east. Where the rest of the circuit should close, a field boundary has taken its place, likely built from whatever material the old bank once offered. The western portion has been further disturbed by quarrying, which has chewed into the earthwork and left that section poorly preserved.
Circular enclosures of this kind are a common feature of the Irish archaeological landscape, though their purposes varied considerably. Some were raths or ringforts, the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval families, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century. Others may have had ceremonial or funerary functions reaching back further still. Without excavation, it is difficult to say which category Doocreggaun belongs to, and the damage it has sustained makes surface reading harder still. What the earthwork does preserve, even in its diminished state, is the basic geometry of intention: someone once drew a deliberate circle in this ground, and enough of it remains to trace the idea, if not the detail.