Enclosure, Gortanure, Co. Leitrim

Co. Leitrim |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Gortanure, Co. Leitrim

In a rough grazing field just north of a small forestry plantation in Gortanure, County Leitrim, something circular lies beneath the grass, invisible to anyone walking past it but legible from above.

The site exists, as far as current records are concerned, primarily as a cropmark, which is the faint differential in vegetation colour and growth that appears when buried features alter how moisture and nutrients behave in the soil above them. In dry conditions especially, the outlines of long-buried ditches or walls can surface in this way, turning an ordinary field into a kind of photographic negative of what once stood there.

What the aerial imagery reveals is a roughly circular enclosure approximately 24 metres in diameter, defined by the cropmark of a broad fosse, the fosse being a substantial ditch, here estimated at around 5 metres wide, that would originally have enclosed whatever structure or activity occupied the interior. Circular enclosures of this general type are common across Ireland and range in date from the Bronze Age through to the early medieval period, when they were often used as ringforts, serving as farmsteads for individual families or small communities. The site was reported by Jean-Charles Caillere and is visible on Digital Globe aerial imagery as well as Google Earth imagery from May 2020. At ground level, there is likely little or nothing to see, which is precisely what makes the aerial record so useful and, in a quiet way, so striking.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Enclosure, Gortanure, Co. Leitrim. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement