Enclosure, Ballynamona, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Enclosures
In the improved pasture of Ballynamona, a low earthen bank describes a rough rectangle in the hillside, and the farmers nearby have always called it a fort.
That name carries a long memory. Across Ireland, the word is commonly applied to the remains of ring-forts or raths, the enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, typically defined by one or more earthen banks thrown up around a central living area. Whether or not this particular enclosure shares that origin, the label has persisted in local speech long after any original function was forgotten.
The enclosure measures approximately 29 metres east to west and 25 metres north to south, oriented on a gentle east-facing slope. Its bank survives best along the western and northern sides, where it retains a width of around 3.2 metres at the base and rises half a metre or so above the interior ground level. To the east and south, the bank appears to have been cut back or straightened at some point, perhaps during episodes of agricultural improvement that also left the surrounding land in tidy pasture. The interior surface is uneven, and a linear depression running roughly northwest to southeast crosses the western sector from the bank inward toward the centre. What caused it is not recorded; it may reflect a collapsed feature, a former drain, or simply the long-term settling of disturbed ground. Briars have colonised the bank and the perimeter, which has helped preserve the earthwork from the plough even as it makes close inspection difficult.