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Recent excavations at Rathgurreen Ringfort, on the Maree Peninsula in County Galway, have revealed new details about the site’s history, indicating that it may have evolved from a late Bronze Age/early Iron Age monument and that, during the early medieval period, it was the farmstead of a high-status family with far-reaching trade connections.
It was already known that the ringfort was unusual in form. When Professor Michael Duignan of the University of Galway carried out the first excavations on the site in 1948-1949, he found that, while most ringforts in Ireland measure only 30-35m (98-115ft) in diameter, with a single circular boundary bank and ditch, Rathgurreen instead boasts two concentric banks, each with their own external ditch, with the outermost measuring almost 100m (328ft) in diameter. He also concluded that the outer bank and ditch probably predated the inner one.
Now, as part of a multi-year project that is set to look at land use through time on the Maree Peninsula, a team from Archaeology at the University of Galway, led by Dr Michelle Comber and Dr Noel McCarthy, have reinvestigated the ringfort for the first time in 75 years. They have established that Duignan’s theory about the monument’s phasing was correct: earlier deposits were found to lie beneath the inner bank, indicating that it was a later addition, while the outer bank and ditch appeared to be part of an earlier monument. While the exact chronology won’t be known until radiocarbon results come in, analysis of small finds – including late Bronze Age pottery and Iron Age glass beads found in two pits, some of which have parallels in other parts of Ireland and Scotland – suggests that this site is likely to have originated as a late Bronze Age/Iron Age monument that was then repurposed in the early medieval period as a ringfort. The reworking of a prehistoric monument into a ringfort was not common in Ireland and it is hoped that post-excavation analysis might reveal more details about the site’s apparently unique evolution.
Where Duignan failed to identify any built structures inside the ringfort, the recent excavations have succeeded, revealing the remains of several buildings, including a possible metal workshop, with waste slag, hammerscale, and a tuyère fragment discovered within its footprint. Excavated evidence suggests that this was part of an early medieval farmstead, which also produced animal bones from various species, primarily cattle, sheep, and pig – but it appears to have been more than just an average farm. Access to overseas trade is represented by sherds of pottery from northern France, dating to AD 550-650, and amber beads from the Baltic region, probably dating to between the 9th and 11th centuries, suggesting connections with the Viking world. The team also found middens of dog whelk shells, which, based on the way they were broken, were probably used to make a purple dye that was in demand across early medieval Europe.
Sitting on the highest point of the peninsula, the ringfort enjoys a prominent position with 360-degree views, ideal for territorial control and trade links. It seems that its inhabitants used this strategic location to their advantage, sustaining the ringfort’s status for many generations.
Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Photo: Michelle Comber
