Enclosure, Bray, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Bray, Co. Kerry

On the southern flank of Bray Head in County Kerry, a rectangular enclosure sits quietly absorbed into the landscape, its southern wall literally cut away by the track that runs up to the old signal tower above.

That kind of layering, one structure eroding or overwriting another across centuries, is not unusual in Ireland, but there is something particularly matter-of-fact about it here: a prehistoric or early historic boundary simply sheared off by a path built for an entirely different purpose in an entirely different era.

The enclosure measures roughly 25 by 20 metres and forms part of a broader cluster of archaeological features on the headland. Signal towers of this type were constructed along the Irish coastline in the early nineteenth century, part of a network built to relay warnings of potential Napoleonic naval threats. The track serving the Bray Head tower cut directly into the southern side of the earlier enclosure, leaving its surviving portions incorporated into the slope. An enclosure of this kind would typically have defined a settlement, a farmstead, or a ceremonial space, bounded by an earthen bank or a stone wall, though the surviving detail here is limited.

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Pete F
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