Enclosure, Lackaroe, Co. Kerry

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Lackaroe, Co. Kerry

On a south-facing slope above the Sheen River valley in south-west Kerry, a large oval enclosure sits in rough pasture, its boundaries marked by a collapsed drystone wall that has, in places, disappeared almost entirely under grass.

Measuring roughly 150 metres from west-northwest to east-northeast and about 85 metres across, it is not a small feature, yet the irregularity of its southern boundary and the slow subsidence of its walls give it the quality of something the landscape is quietly absorbing back into itself.

What makes the site particularly interesting is the density of archaeology gathered around it. Within the enclosure itself lie two adjoining hut sites, the remains of small stone structures likely used as seasonal or permanent shelters at some point in the prehistoric or early medieval period. A cairn, a mound of stones that may mark a burial or serve as a landscape monument, sits about 40 metres to the north. To the south, the ground holds further traces of past activity: a fulacht fia and a relict field system lie in close proximity, along with an additional hut site roughly 25 metres away. A fulacht fia is a type of ancient cooking site, typically identified by a horseshoe-shaped mound of fire-cracked stones and charcoal left behind after repeated use of a water trough heated with hot stones. Together, these features suggest that this slope above the Sheen River was not merely a passing-through place but a landscape that supported repeated, possibly sustained, human occupation over a long period. A turf stand abutting the northeastern end of the enclosure is a reminder, too, that the area continued to be worked in more recent centuries, with peat cutting leaving its own quiet mark on the ground.

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Pete F
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