Enclosure, Caherkeen, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Caherkeen, Co. Cork

Sitting in bogland on the northern foothills of Knocknagallaun, this modest circular enclosure is the kind of site that rewards anyone willing to read the landscape slowly.

It measures roughly nineteen metres north to south and just over eighteen metres east to west, defined by a low bank of boulders and stone that still survives to an internal height of about sixty centimetres. What gives it an added layer of interest is its position: it sits only five metres east of a second circular enclosure, making this a paired arrangement in a stretch of terrain not obviously associated with settlement or ceremony at first glance.

Enclosures of this type, stone-built rings whose interiors are left deliberately level, appear throughout west Cork and are generally understood to be early medieval in character, though firm dating without excavation is difficult. The bank here is 1.8 metres wide and stands slightly higher on its interior face than its exterior, a detail that suggests the stone was originally built up with some care. Two sections of the bank, to the south-east and south-south-west, have been removed, whether through agricultural clearance, stone robbing, or simple decay over centuries is not recorded. The site was noted by O'Shea and Crowley in 1972, and their observation remains the principal account of what survives on the ground.

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Pete F
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