Road schemes have a way of turning up things that were never meant to be found again. When engineers began planning the N9 realignment through Moone, Timolin, and Ballitore Hill in County Kildare, routine archaeological testing of the proposed route revealed unexpected quantities of medieval pottery and the suggestion of buried structures. What followed was a full excavation of two fields, designated Site 45, and the uncovering of a medieval enclosure that had quietly survived for centuries beneath later field boundaries and ploughsoil.

The central feature was a large ditch, roughly circular, enclosing a raised interior area of about 41 metres in diameter, with an additional embankment to the south. The ditch itself had an unusual origin: it began as three separate cuts that ran parallel for around 25 metres before merging into a single channel, which continued for a further 45 metres, giving a total traced length of 70 metres. It was 3 to 4 metres wide and around a metre deep throughout. The fill of the ditch yielded large quantities of animal bone alongside the medieval pottery, the kind of domestic and agricultural debris that accumulates over generations of settled use. Outside the main ditch, a series of ploughmarks and smaller drainage channels indicated the agricultural landscape that had operated around the enclosure. These features stopped precisely at the ditch line, suggesting the surrounding farmland had worked in conscious relation to the enclosed area rather than simply absorbing it. Inside, smaller gullies and the possible remains of two house structures pointed to occupation within the bounded space. An enclosure of this type, a defined circular area with a surrounding ditch and raised interior, is a form found widely across medieval Ireland, often associated with a farmstead or minor settlement of some local significance.