Ringfort (Rath), Moneen, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Ringforts
In the level grassland of Moneen in County Galway, a roughly oval earthwork sits quietly occupied by cattle.
The interior of this early medieval enclosure, once the enclosed farmstead of a farming family, has been repurposed as a feeding pen, a fate that neatly illustrates how these structures continue to shape the working landscape even as their original purpose recedes from memory.
A rath is a type of ringfort, typically a circular or subcircular enclosure defined by one or more earthen banks with accompanying ditches, known as fosses, constructed primarily during the early medieval period in Ireland, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. They served as enclosed farmsteads, providing a degree of security for a family, their livestock, and their stores. The example at Moneen is a modest one, measuring approximately forty metres north to south and thirty-two and a half metres east to west, and is defined by two banks with an intervening fosse. It is poorly preserved, and the surviving earthworks have been further disturbed by a trackway that cuts through the enclosing elements at the southern side. Two gaps survive in the banks, one at the east and one at the south, and either could represent the original entrance, though it is now difficult to say with certainty which one the site's inhabitants would have used.