Enclosure, Ballynahown, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Ballynahown, Co. Clare

On a wind-scoured slope above Ballynahown in County Clare, a roughly circular arrangement of tumbled stone sits quietly on the high ground, open to whatever comes in off the Atlantic.

From here, the Aran Islands are visible across the water, a detail that feels less incidental than it might first appear. Sites like this one were not placed carelessly, and that westward orientation, commanding and exposed in equal measure, suggests the position was chosen with some deliberate purpose in mind.

The enclosure is modest in scale, measuring approximately 17.5 metres north to south and 16.5 metres from east-southeast to west-northwest internally. What survives is not a standing wall but a spread of stone, varying in height from around 0.2 metres to 0.8 metres and reaching up to three metres in width, the remnant of what was once a more substantial boundary. A later field wall, running roughly northwest to southeast, cuts across the site just north of its centre, dividing the interior and complicating the picture somewhat. The section of the original stone spread to the west of that later wall is noticeably wider and higher than elsewhere, suggesting it has been better preserved or perhaps that material was consolidated there over time. The interior of the enclosure itself is level ground. Around the site, a small field system extends to the southwest, which in turn sits within a larger network of ancient field boundaries, hinting that this was once part of a more organised agricultural or settlement landscape rather than an isolated feature.

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Pete F
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