Ecclesiastical enclosure, Knockycallanan, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Ecclesiastical Sites
At the southern edge of a broad, fertile valley beneath Turlough Hill in County Clare, a circular enclosure roughly a hundred metres across sits quietly within a larger one, the two together forming a kind of nested boundary around what was once a monastic complex at Oughtmama.
The inner enclosure, the one at Knockycallanan, is only partially traceable today: to the north it survives as a scarp, a low earthen escarpment cut into the ground, while along the south a curving modern field wall happens to follow the older line, preserving its arc almost by accident.
This kind of nested arrangement, an inner precinct enclosed within a wider outer boundary, was common in early Irish monasticism, where different zones of a settlement carried different degrees of sanctity or function. Here, the inner enclosure contains two churches, while the outer enclosure takes in the entire complex. The Oughtmama site is a national monument in State Care, designated as number 12, which places it among the country's formally protected early ecclesiastical remains. The valley setting, sheltered and well-watered, would have been a practical as much as a spiritual choice for whoever first established a religious community here.
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