Enclosure, Athdown, Co. Wicklow
Co. Wicklow |
Enclosures
On a south-easterly slope of Kippure Mountain in County Wicklow, just inside a forestry plantation, a circular earthwork sits in a state of near-invisibility.
At roughly 13 metres across, the enclosure is defined by a bank of earth and stone so low and worn that much of it has effectively merged with the forest floor. The most legible stretch runs along the northern and western arc, where the bank still reaches an internal height of around 30 centimetres, but elsewhere the enclosing element fades to almost nothing, and on the eastern side it has vanished entirely. Trees have taken root within the interior and along the projected line of the bank itself, and a granite outcrop on the south-eastern edge creates an optical illusion of sorts: approached from that direction, the monument appears to sit on a small plateau or ridge, when in reality the slope simply drops away sharply before levelling off again.
When archaeologist Patrick Healy first recorded the site in the late twentieth century, he noted no entrance, no external fosse (a fosse being a defensive or boundary ditch), and no internal features. When Séamus Ó Murchú of the Forest Service examined it again on 5 March 2021, the picture had grown murkier still. The enclosure appeared more degraded than in Healy's time, with the southern and western portions now barely traceable. Ó Murchú suggested the monument had likely been further levelled during afforestation works. He did, however, identify a possible entrance on the north-western side, marked by a small upright stone to the west and a cluster of granite cobbles to the east, as well as a short arc of stone extending inward from the northern bank, though whether that arc is a genuine internal feature or simply debris from the levelling works remains uncertain. The enclosure's function and date are unknown, and no excavation appears to have taken place. What survives is essentially a rumour in the landscape, legible mainly to those who already know to look.