Enclosure, Ballyannymore, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Ballyannymore, Co. Tipperary

Beneath a lumpy, reclaimed field in North Tipperary lies an archaeological site that has never been seen from the ground.

The only evidence that anything is there at all comes from a single aerial photograph taken in 1973, which revealed two concentric circular forms pressed into the earth, one smaller ring sitting to the north inside a larger one. Stand in the field today and you would see nothing of consequence, just uneven grass over ground that has been worked and reshaped over time.

Enclosures of this kind, circular or roughly circular boundaries defined by ditches, banks, or both, are among the most common archaeological features in the Irish landscape, and they span a very wide range of periods and purposes, from early medieval farmsteads to prehistoric ceremonial sites. What makes this one at Ballyannymore quietly interesting is the nested arrangement: a smaller enclosure positioned within or immediately adjacent to a larger one. That configuration sometimes indicates a domestic site where a dwelling area was separated from an outer yard or animal enclosure, though without excavation it is impossible to say more. The site was formally recorded in the Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary, compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien and published in 2002, drawing on that 1973 aerial photograph as its primary source. The undulating, hummocky character of the field suggests the ground has been disturbed and levelled over many years, which is likely why no surface trace remains.

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