Enclosure, Graiguealug, Co. Carlow

The enclosure at Graiguealug, in County Carlow, breaks that convention in a way that archaeologists have found worth noting. It sits on a steep slope, a position considered unusual for this type of monument, and the fosse, the ditch that typically rings the outside of such an enclosure, appears to have been cut deeply into the hillside above the interior rather than running uniformly around it. The result is a site whose geometry has been pushed and compressed by the gradient, with the interior rising steeply to the west of centre.

The enclosure measures roughly 30 metres across internally, with an overall diameter of around 40 metres. A low bank survives inside the fosse and is most clearly visible on the eastern side, where the ground may have offered slightly better conditions for its preservation. The rest of the site is overgrown, which is a common enough fate for earthwork monuments in pastoral landscapes, but it makes reading the full circuit of the earthworks a matter of some patience. Whether the slope was chosen for reasons of visibility, drainage, or simply because it was the land available, is not recorded. The location alone sets it apart from the hundreds of more conventionally placed ringforts that once served as the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, typically dating to somewhere between the sixth and twelfth centuries.