Enclosure, Mullenaranky, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Enclosures
In a field in Mullenaranky, County Tipperary, something old is making itself known from above.
A roughly D-shaped enclosure, measuring approximately 45 metres north to south and 40 metres east to west, shows up not as a visible earthwork on the ground but as a cropmark on satellite imagery. Cropmarks appear when buried features such as ditches or walls affect how crops or grass grow overhead, with soil above filled-in ditches tending to retain more moisture and produce lusher, slightly different-toned vegetation. The effect is invisible at ground level but can be striking from altitude, and it is exactly this kind of quiet aerial revelation that brought this enclosure to light.
The enclosure is defined by a fosse, essentially a ditch that would once have formed part of a boundary or defensive circuit, and it was identified and reported by Jean-Charles Caillère. One detail that sets it apart slightly from the typical circular or oval forms common in the Irish landscape is the straight section in the north-west sector, running for approximately 27 metres. That geometric regularity in one portion of an otherwise curved perimeter raises questions about the nature and date of the site, though the available evidence does not yet answer them. Enclosures of this general type are found across Ireland in considerable variety, ranging from early medieval ringforts to prehistoric or later agricultural boundaries, and without excavation or further survey the function and period of this particular example remain open.