Enclosure, Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary

Beneath a smooth field of pasture outside Mullinahone in County Tipperary, the outline of an ancient enclosure lies entirely out of sight.

No earthwork breaks the surface, no stones protrude, no dip in the ground betrays what is there. The only record of its existence comes from a photograph taken from the air.

On 16 April 1974, aerial photography carried out by the Geological Survey of Ireland captured a circular cropmark in the fields around Mullinahone. A cropmark forms when buried features, such as the filled-in ditches of an old enclosure, affect the moisture or nutrient content of the soil above them, causing the crops or grass growing overhead to ripen or wilt at slightly different rates from the surrounding vegetation. Seen from the ground, nothing is out of the ordinary. Seen from altitude at the right time of year, the buried shape becomes briefly legible. The photograph, referenced as GSI S. 618/617, is the sole evidence that a circular enclosure, likely the remains of a ringfort or other enclosed settlement, once occupied this spot. Ringforts, which were typically enclosed farmsteads in use during the early medieval period, are among the most common archaeological monument types in Ireland, yet many, like this one, survive only as buried traces.

Because the monument is not visible at ground level and sits in what is now improved agricultural pasture, there is little to observe on a visit. The significance of the place lies not in what can be seen but in what the landscape quietly contains.

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Pete F
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