Enclosure, Lugbaun, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
Enclosures
Some ancient enclosures announce themselves with dramatic earthworks or commanding masonry.
The one at Lugbaun, in County Sligo, does neither. It survives only as a subtle swelling of ground on a steep north-facing slope, its outline barely legible beneath the grass, its age and original purpose uncertain. What makes it quietly interesting is precisely that uncertainty: this is a place that might be a monument, identified not by excavation or documentary record but by the shadow patterns of an aerial photograph.
The site sits roughly 25 metres south of Lough Doo, on a slope that drops away sharply to the north. The remains, such as they are, form a low ovoid rise, measuring approximately 45 metres on its northeast-to-southwest axis and around 38 metres across. The outline is defined by a broadly sloping scarp, the kind of gentle earthen edge that marks where ground was once deliberately shaped. Towards the north, that scarp fades into the natural slope of the hillside, where a low, sod-covered run of tumbled stone may preserve the last fragment of a field wall. The site has been levelled, meaning whatever three-dimensional form it once held has been largely erased, most likely by prolonged agricultural use. Whether it was ever a settlement enclosure, a stock enclosure, or something else entirely, the ground is no longer saying clearly.