Ringfort (Rath), Lissananny, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
Beneath the grassland at Lissananny in County Galway, a low rise in the ground conceals something older and more purposeful than it first appears.
What remains here is a rath, a type of enclosed farmstead built during the early medieval period, typically between the sixth and tenth centuries. This one is subcircular in plan, measuring roughly 45 metres north to south and 42 metres east to west, and it was originally defined by two concentric banks of earth and stone with a fosse, that is, a ditch, running between them. It is not especially well preserved, but the double-bank arrangement tells us something about the status of whoever once lived here; single-banked raths were the norm, and a second enclosing bank was often associated with a household of greater wealth or standing.
The site's most intriguing feature lies underground. Within the interior there is a souterrain, an artificially constructed underground passage or chamber built from stone, typically used in early medieval Ireland for storage or as a place of refuge. Such structures are found across Ireland in association with raths, though their precise functions are still debated. The enclosing banks survive best from the western to the north-eastern arc, and there is a possible entrance gap on the northern side, though a later field boundary cuts across the outer bank at that point, complicating the picture somewhat. Around 170 metres to the south-west, a separate earthwork has been recorded, suggesting that this small rise in the Galway grassland was once part of a broader settled landscape rather than an isolated homestead.