Enclosure (Large), Ballyedmond, Co. Wexford

Co. Wexford |

Enclosures

Enclosure (Large), Ballyedmond, Co. Wexford

On a south-facing slope in County Wexford, the outline of a large oval enclosure lies completely invisible to anyone walking the land.

No earthwork rises above the surface, no stone marks a boundary, and nothing in the ordinary landscape gives it away. The only evidence for its existence is a cropmark, the kind of ghost-image that appears in aerial or satellite photography when buried features cause overlying vegetation to grow at slightly different rates, revealing what lies beneath. In this case, the cropmark showed up only in enhanced imagery captured in 2022.

The enclosure is substantial, measuring roughly 105 metres north to south and 75 metres east to west, dimensions that place it well beyond the scale of a typical ring-fort or domestic enclosure. Its perimeter appears to be formed by two closely spaced parallel ditches running from the north-west around to the south-east, which then merge into a single wider ditch of about 40 metres along the southern side before turning back north-west. The full circuit is not clean. A north-to-south field bank along the western side, running roughly 65 metres, cuts across the perimeter, and a further east-to-west field bank bisects the eastern portion, both likely representing later agricultural reorganisation of the land that gradually erased any surface trace. The site was first reported by Jean Charles Caillére, and its function and date remain unknown; without excavation, the cropmark geometry is the only evidence available.

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Pete F
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