Enclosure, Ballyconnoe, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Ballyconnoe, Co. Clare

On an elevated plateau in County Clare, a large subcircular enclosure sits quietly embedded within one of the more complex field systems in the area, its outline still legible from aerial imagery despite centuries of agricultural overwriting.

The enclosure measures roughly 82 metres north to south and 75 metres east to west, making it a substantial feature, comparable in scale to the ringforts found across Ireland, though its precise function and date remain unspecified. What makes it particularly arresting is how thoroughly the surrounding landscape has grown up around and through it: field boundaries radiate off the perimeter in almost every direction, and two later boundaries cut directly across the interior, one running north to south through the eastern portion, another bisecting the middle from east to west.

The enclosure was brought to the attention of the National Monuments Service by Conn Herriott, and it sits within a wider multiperiod field system, meaning the landscape around it accumulated its current form across several distinct phases of use and settlement rather than in any single period. A hut site, the remains of a small structure likely associated with earlier habitation or agricultural activity, lies just to the south-west of the enclosure's centre. Roughly 22 metres to the south-east, a second enclosure of similar dimensions occupies the same plateau, suggesting this elevated ground was once a focus of organised activity, whether for settlement, enclosure of livestock, or some combination of purposes that the current pasture gives no obvious clue about.

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Pete F
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