Concentric enclosure, Drumavaddy, Co. Cavan

Co. Cavan |

Enclosures

Concentric enclosure, Drumavaddy, Co. Cavan

In a field at Drumavaddy in County Cavan, a small circular earthwork sits quietly raised above the surrounding ground, its geometry too deliberate to be accidental.

What makes it particularly interesting is its concentric design: not one enclosing bank but two, one inside the other, each paired with its own fosse, which is simply a ditch dug to create the bank alongside it. Between the inner and outer sets of bank and fosse runs a berm, a level strip of ground roughly nine metres wide, giving the whole structure a layered, almost architectural quality. The interior measures about twenty-five metres in diameter, which is modest in scale but consistent with a range of early Irish enclosed sites whose purposes varied from settlement to ritual to stock management.

This kind of concentric earthwork is relatively uncommon in the Irish archaeological record, and the double-bank arrangement hints at a deliberate concern with demarcation, whether for defence, ceremony, or simply the clear marking of a boundary between inside and outside. The most telling detail is structural rather than decorative: at the east-north-east of the enclosure, there are corresponding breaks in both the inner and outer banks, suggesting that the original entrance was oriented in that direction. Aligned entrances of this kind are a recognised feature of prehistoric and early medieval enclosures across Ireland, and their positioning is rarely arbitrary, often reflecting pathways, sight lines, or the position of sunrise at particular times of year, though what specifically motivated the choice here remains unknown.

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Pete F
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