2003:2253 - TULLAGH UPPER, Galway

Test-trenches were excavated by machine on the site of an earthwork enclosure on the route of the proposed N6 Loughrea Bypass and N66 Gort Link. The site is now under pasture, but machine trenches exposed deep quarry pits backfilled with modern rubbish and building debris.

The site was represented as a small, circular enclosure, approximately 25m wide, on early editions of the OS map. However, local landowners say the present example was not an earthwork enclosure at all but consisted merely of walling around a cattle-watering pond. In any case, the site was quarried and then backfilled in living memory, so there are now no standing remains of either earthwork or pond.

The site is near a hilltop with commanding views over Lough Rea and environs. The name ‘tullagh’ may simply mean a hill but has also been associated with early medieval assembly places (Swift 1996). The present site, however, lies just north of the summit, so that it enjoys no prospect of the lake and lands to the south. If there was an important assembly site on the hill, then this was probably at the summit and not on the present site.

The excavation was conducted by Galway County Council and funded by the National Roads Authority under the aegis of the National Development Plan 2002–2006.

Reference
Swift, C. 1996 Pagan monuments and Christian legal centres in early Meath. Ríocht na Midhe 9, 1–26.