West Cork Field Trip: Garranes Ringfort

So since we visited four sites yesterday and had lunch in Clonakilty, I'm actually going to break up what could be an epicly long post into five short posts.

Relatively promptly at 9:30am (we tried to wait for one person, but he appears to be sleeping through class) from Gaol Cross.  After ordering our meal for the day as well as the meals for our overnight trips, we all eagerly looked out the window for our first site and whatever other ones we could see.

Me in the Ringfort

Our first site was Garranges Ringfort.  Ringforts are one of the most common archaeological sites throughout Ireland, but some were sadly lost after the superstition that they were a magical place subsided.  Now, however, there are stricter laws to protect them.

Here is the information in my awesome syllabus about it:
A large tri-vallate ringfort excavated in 1930s and again in 1991-93.  Garranes may well be the royal seat of the Eoganacht Raithleann, referred to as Rath Raithleann in the early sources.  The excavations in the 1930s produced evidence of intensive metal- and glass-working and uncovered the remains of an elaborate system of gates.  Imported pottery (from the Mediterranean and Gaul) dating from the 5th and 7th centuries AD was found.

Me in the Trench

A View from the Trench

After our professor explained that we were in a ringfort and not in a random circular field, we explored the site for a bit and it was beautiful.  A lot of us went down into the trench that would have surrounded the fort. By the way, it might seem like I'm posting a lot of photos, but I'm trying to be super restrained as I took about 192...