Enclosure, Ballyvonnavaun, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Ballyvonnavaun, Co. Clare

In the townland of Ballyvonnavaun in County Clare, an enclosure sits in the landscape, recorded and mapped but not yet fully explained.

Enclosures of this kind are among the most common and most quietly enigmatic features of the Irish countryside, ranging from prehistoric ceremonial boundaries to the circular or subcircular walls of early medieval ringforts, where a farming family would have sheltered their livestock and household within a raised earthen bank or stone wall. The fact that this one has been formally noted as a monument suggests it retains enough physical presence to be distinguished from the general texture of the land around it.

Ballyvonnavaun is a small townland in Clare, a county whose limestone landscape preserves archaeological features with unusual clarity, the thin soils and sparse modern development leaving earthworks and field boundaries readable for centuries longer than they might survive elsewhere. Without more detailed records currently available for this particular site, the enclosure remains something of an outline, a shape on the ground awaiting fuller documentation. That incompleteness is itself a fair reflection of where Irish archaeological inventory work stands, thorough in ambition, still catching up in practice, with many hundreds of recorded monuments across the country holding their details close until survey work reaches them.

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, Ballyvonnavaun, Co. Clare. 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