Enclosure, Drumclieve, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Enclosures
Sitting in a field of improved pasture on a south-facing slope in County Tipperary, this large earthwork enclosure is easy to overlook.
It blends into the agricultural landscape around it, its defining bank worn down to little more than a gentle rise, and yet the sheer scale of it rewards closer attention. The enclosure measures roughly 73 metres from north-northwest to south-southeast and around 60 metres across, making it a substantial presence on the land even in its current, diminished state.
The enclosure is sub-oval in plan, with rounded corners rather than sharp angles, and its boundary was originally formed by a combination of a raised bank and an external fosse, the term for a ditch dug to reinforce an earthen boundary from the outside. The bank, composed of gravel rather than the more typical earth or stone, survives to an external height of about 1.3 metres on its northeast to east-southeast arc, though on the opposite side it has been reduced to a simple scarp, a sloping edge where the original structure has eroded away. The accompanying fosse, between 7.4 and 8.5 metres wide, survives only shallowly. The interior surface is uneven, sloping gently southward, which may reflect centuries of agricultural activity or earlier ground features that have never been fully levelled. Enclosures of this kind are broadly associated with the early medieval period in Ireland, when ringforts and related earthwork boundaries were used to define farmsteads, enclose livestock, or demarcate territory, though without excavation the precise date and function of this particular example remain open questions. The Galtee Mountains, visible from the site, form a long ridge to the south, and the slope on which the enclosure sits would have given its original occupants a clear view across the surrounding countryside.