Enclosure, Balleen, Co. Kilkenny

Co. Kilkenny |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Balleen, Co. Kilkenny

In the rough pasture of Balleen, a low grassy oval sits on a steep north-east-facing slope in County Kilkenny, having escaped the attention of Ordnance Survey mapmakers entirely.

It was not a walker or a local farmer who brought it to light, but satellite imagery, through which researcher Katherine McCormack spotted the subtle earthwork from above. The fact that it appears on no OS map of any edition makes it a genuinely unrecorded feature of the Irish landscape, the kind of thing that almost certainly has many equivalents still waiting to be noticed.

The enclosure is slightly oval in plan, measuring roughly 31 metres north to south and 36 metres east to west. It is defined by a low, grass-covered stony bank, the kind of boundary feature associated in Ireland with early medieval settlement, though no date has been established for this particular site. A fosse, meaning a shallow ditch dug to reinforce the bank on its outer side, survives in the north-west quadrant, roughly two to three metres wide and up to 35 centimetres deep. The bank itself varies considerably around the circuit: best preserved on the south-west to north arc, it becomes quite denuded in the north-east quadrant, where the slope is steepest and erosion most advanced. The whole structure is built into the ridge rather than sitting freely on flat ground, which gives it a slightly asymmetric profile depending on where you stand. The interior, largely open rough pasture, has a notable concentration of thistles, a detail that occasionally signals disturbed or enriched ground beneath the surface. Views to the north are clear and the eastern prospect is extensive, though rising ground blocks the sight lines to the south and west.

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Pete F
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