Enclosure, Killeen, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Enclosures
In a field in County Tipperary that was once waterlogged bog, a low rectangular earthwork sits almost imperceptibly above the surrounding pasture.
The ground has been reclaimed and levelled over time, but the enclosure has held its shape, rising only a few centimetres above the surrounding land, its edges defined by a scarp and a shallow external fosse, a term for a defensive or boundary ditch, that betray deliberate human construction rather than any natural accident of the terrain.
The site measures roughly 43.5 metres on its northwest to southeast axis and 55 metres on its northeast to southwest axis, making it a substantial enclosure despite its unassuming appearance at ground level. A possible annexe extends to the northeast, separated from the main enclosure by a shallow fosse approximately 4.6 metres wide. The enclosure's defining bank, or scarp, stands between 0.4 and 0.7 metres in external height, with traces of a counterscarp, a secondary earthwork on the far side of the ditch, still faintly legible. What makes the site particularly readable is an aerial photograph taken in 1966 as part of the Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photography, in which the enclosure appears as a clearly raised, roughly rectangular form against the flat pasture. The NE quadrant of the annexe is less well preserved; the scarp fades out and the ground becomes uneven and hummocky, suggesting either later disturbance or incomplete survival. The fosse itself appears to have been recut at some point, probably to assist with drainage, since it continues as a working ditch beyond the monument in both directions. The nature of that original bogland is recalled in the name of a nearby castle, known as Bog Castle, which stands roughly 200 metres to the west-southwest.
