Enclosure, Dromard, Co. Sligo

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Dromard, Co. Sligo

On a east-west ridge in Dromard, County Sligo, a large oval enclosure sits in a state of slow absorption, its ancient stony bank being gradually swallowed by later field walls, blackthorn scrub, and brambles.

What makes it quietly striking is the way the landscape has collaborated with whoever built it: the steep natural ridge slope to the north acts as a reinforcing element, effectively doubling as part of the enclosure's boundary, so that the man-made and the geological are difficult to separate at a glance.

The enclosure is substantial, measuring roughly 57.7 metres east to west and 51.2 metres north to south, and it was originally defined by a stony bank up to 5.9 metres wide and around 2 metres high on its outer face. Enclosures of this kind, roughly circular or oval earthworks bounded by a bank and sometimes a fosse (a surrounding ditch), appear across Ireland in various forms and periods, from early medieval ringforts to later settlement enclosures associated with churches and ecclesiastical estates. At Dromard, the western arc of the bank survives in reasonable condition, curving clearly from the south-west around to the north-north-west, before it merges into the natural scarp of the ridge, which rises to around 5.6 metres at that point. On the eastern side the original bank has largely been replaced by a later field wall, and a 2-metre gap on the east side may mark the original entrance. Inside, the ground is not flat: a central spine of raised ground runs east to west, reflecting the natural undulation of the ridge beneath, and at the eastern end of this spine sits a rectangular platform, approximately 12.5 by 10.8 metres, which appears to be the footprint of a former house. A ruined field wall cuts through the southern third of the interior, and a further field wall to the west, positioned just 3 metres outside the enclosure bank, follows its curve closely enough to suggest it may be tracing the line of a now-vanished fosse or outer bank. Around 170 metres to the south-east, a church and graveyard occupy the same general landscape, hinting at a settlement pattern in which the enclosure and the ecclesiastical site once formed part of the same local world.

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Pete F
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