forts historical around ballinasloe portumna

Aughrim, just off the main road to Galway, and 8km from Ballinasloe was the scene of the Battle of Aughrim on 12th July 1691, which largely decided the outcome of the course of Irish History.

Here the Williamite forces defeated the mainly Catholic Irish and French forces under the leadership of the French General, St Ruth, who was killed in the battle. There are two ringforts situated here each with a diameter of about 100 feet and surrounded by a six foot high bank....

Two ringforts in neighbouring fields, each with a diameter of about 100 feet and each surrounded by a bank, about 6 feet high, outside which is a ditch.
It was in the one nearest the road that the Jacobean general St. Ruth died in battle against the Williamite forces on 12 July 1691.
The defeat brought an end to the hopes of James 11, and heralded one hundred of the blackest years in Irish history....