Enclosure, Corbally, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Enclosures
A gentle scarp in a field of pasture near Corbally in County Clare is easy to overlook, but its proportions tell a different story.
Visible from aerial imagery as a near-square outline, roughly 38 metres on each axis, this subrectangular enclosure sits on a low rise in the landscape, its north-eastern side absorbed into an overgrown field boundary that has since taken on a life of its own. It is the kind of feature that blends into the agricultural grain of the Irish countryside until you know what you are looking at.
The site was brought to the attention of the National Monuments Service by Jean-Charles Caillère, whose observation prompted its formal recording. Enclosures of this type are broadly associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland, though without excavation it is difficult to assign a precise function or date to any individual example. What makes the Corbally enclosure particularly interesting is its immediate context: two ringforts, recorded as Drumbaun Fort and a neighbouring undesignated example, lie directly to the north-east. A ringfort, to be clear, is a circular or roughly circular enclosed settlement typical of the early medieval period, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches. The clustering of enclosures and ringforts in the same small area suggests that this corner of Clare may have supported a denser pattern of early activity than the quiet pasture now implies.