Enclosure, Kilmacrea, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Kilmacrea, Co. Wicklow

On a south-east-facing slope in a wide Wicklow valley, there is an ancient circular enclosure that you cannot see.

No earthwork rises above the grass, no obvious boundary marks the perimeter, and nothing announces the presence of what locals have long called the Raheen. That name, from the Irish 'ráithín', meaning a small ringfort or enclosure, hints at a class of monument that was once a feature of the Irish countryside in considerable numbers, but this one has sunk entirely below the surface, surviving now only as a name on the land and a faint trace in the historical record.

The Raheen at Kilmacrea is circular, with a diameter of approximately 35 metres, and was said by O'Flanagan in 1928 to have served as a burial ground. Whether that use was ancient or more recent, primary or secondary, the notes do not say; Irish enclosures of this type were put to many purposes across different periods, and burial grounds sometimes accumulated around or within older monuments long after their original function had been forgotten. The site has not yielded any precise date, and the enclosure itself is no longer visible at ground level, meaning its full character, whether a simple earthen bank, a more substantial ringfort, or something older, remains a matter of inference rather than record.

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Pete F
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