Enclosure, Kilpipe, Co. Wicklow
Co. Wicklow |
Enclosures
On a gentle north-northeast-facing slope above the steep drop of a Wicklow river valley, there is an archaeological site that most people drive straight through without knowing it.
The enclosure at Kilpipe is invisible at ground level; the only way to see it clearly is from the air, where it appears as a cropmark, the ghostly outline that buried or levelled earthworks leave in growing crops when dry conditions cause the vegetation above them to ripen unevenly. What the aerial photograph reveals is a sub-rectangular shape defined by a fosse, a defensive or boundary ditch, pressed into the hillside slope.
The enclosure sits immediately south-west of a circular enclosure, and the two may be broadly contemporary with one another, suggesting a cluster of activity in this part of Kilpipe rather than a single isolated monument. A ring-ditch, a type of circular earthwork often associated with prehistoric burial or ritual, is also visible as a cropmark to the south-west, adding a third element to what seems to be a small concentration of early remains in the area. A road running north-east to south-west along the eastern side of the enclosure has possibly truncated the monument, meaning the full original extent of the feature may have been partly lost to later infrastructure. That kind of slow erasure is common across the Irish countryside, where ancient boundaries and the routes of modern roads have often ended up in quiet, unrecorded conflict.