Field system, Aughmore, Co. Wexford

Co. Wexford |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Field system, Aughmore, Co. Wexford

At Aughmore in County Wexford, an ancient system of fields lies buried beneath level farmland, invisible to anyone walking across it, yet perfectly legible from the air.

Aerial photographs reveal cropmarks, the faint but telling variations in crop growth that appear above buried ditches and earthworks, tracing out a coherent pattern of enclosures across roughly four hectares of ground. It is the kind of site that simply does not announce itself on the landscape, which makes the aerial evidence all the more arresting.

The field system comprises a series of rectangular plots, each measuring approximately one hundred metres long and between thirty and sixty metres wide, defined by single ditch-features rather than walls or banks. Two small enclosures are incorporated within the overall layout and appear to be contemporary with it, suggesting the whole arrangement was conceived and used as a single, organised unit. What exactly was being managed here, whether crops, livestock, or some combination, is not recorded, but the regularity of the layout points to deliberate agricultural planning rather than piecemeal accumulation over time. The site has no visible surface expression today; its existence is known almost entirely through the cropmark record captured in aerial photography.

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