Enclosure, Ballysimon, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Ballysimon, Co. Tipperary

A townland boundary cuts clean through the middle of this small enclosure in County Tipperary, a bureaucratic line drawn across something considerably older.

The boundary does not follow the logic of the monument; it simply bisects it, running east to west, as if the enclosure had already been forgotten by the time anybody thought to divide the land.

The enclosure itself is nearly circular, roughly 20 metres north to south and 19 metres east to west, sitting in a level stretch of improved pasture where drained stream beds and drainage channels are still visible in the ground. What defines it is a combination of a scarp, a step-like drop in the earth, and an outer fosse, which is the term for a rock-cut or earthen ditch typically used to reinforce a boundary or barrier. The fosse is most pronounced on the north-western to north-eastern arc, where it reaches nearly a metre in depth and almost nine metres wide, but it shallows and narrows considerably around the south-eastern quadrant. Where the field boundary crosses the monument to the east and west, the fosse has been backfilled, effectively erased at the points where later land management needed to move through. There are also traces of a possible outer bank surviving in the north-western quadrant, low on the exterior but somewhat more defined on the interior face. A large natural hollow lies roughly seven metres to the south-south-east, close enough to have influenced the original choice of location, or simply to complicate the reading of the earthworks for anyone examining the site today.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Enclosure, Ballysimon, Co. Tipperary. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement