Enclosure, Coolsickin, Co. Kildare

Co. Kildare |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Coolsickin, Co. Kildare

There is nothing to see at this site, and that, in a sense, is what makes it interesting. A field of grassland in the Kildare townland of Coolsickin gives no indication that anything lies beneath it, yet aerial imagery has revealed the clear outline of a circular enclosure roughly 45 metres across, its form preserved not in stone or earthwork but in the differential growth of crops above a buried ditch. These cropmarks, as they are known, appear when soil disturbed by ancient digging retains more moisture than the surrounding ground, causing vegetation above it to grow taller or greener and so, when viewed from altitude, to trace the shapes of long-vanished structures with surprising precision.

The enclosure sits in open grassland, with Quinsborough House lying around 160 metres to the west and the townland boundary with Coolatogher approximately 130 metres to the east. The single ditch defining the circle is consistent with the kind of enclosed settlement that was common across Ireland from the prehistoric period through the early medieval centuries, though without excavation it is not possible to say more precisely when this particular example was in use or what activity it once contained. Its survival as a cropmark alone, with no upstanding remains whatsoever, means it belongs to a category of site that is almost entirely invisible to anyone walking the ground.

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Pete F
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