What is recorded here

Enclosure in Aghaglinny South is a natural oval rock outcrop at the top of Gleninagh Mountain, not a built monument, though a low surviving wall still curves along its northeast edge. Westropp and later Spellissy imagined Eoghanacht chiefs were inaugurated there, but Tom Coffey correctly saw the eroded top tier of the mountain itself. The real wonder is that people kept finding ceremony in the shape of the rock, projecting chiefdom onto a ridge that may have only watched Galway Bay for centuries.

A natural oval nunatak (67m NE-SW; 35.7m WNW-ESE) is situated at the northern end of the plateau which forms the top of Gleninagh Mountain, with extensive views to the N over Galway bay. Indicated as a circular hachured enclosure on the 1840 OS 6-inch map and hachured as an oval enclosure on the 1915 edition. A low wall (L c. 20m) is visible on Digital Globe satellite imagery curving along the upper NE edge and a possible small cairn is visible in the N sector. An E-W field boundary crosses the nunatak and has a possible hut site (CL001-006002-) along its line. Westropp (1915, 61–2) mistakenly believed the prominence to be an earthen construction and suggested it might have been an inauguration place of ‘the Eoghanacht chiefs’, a possibility followed by Spellissy (1980). Tom Coffey (1985, 28) correctly identified it as the ‘eroded top tier of the mountain’, however, he did not note the partially surviving wall along its NE edge. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin Date of upload: 30 November 2020

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