Enclosure, Carrighill, Co. Kildare

Co. Kildare |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Carrighill, Co. Kildare

On a pasture ridge in County Kildare, a roughly circular earthen bank some fifty metres across sits quietly at the southern end of a low rise, its western slope cut away by a modern farm road. The bank itself survives to between one and one point two metres in height and about two metres wide, curving from the north-east around to the north-west in a broad arc. The interior is slightly raised on the western side, suggesting deliberate shaping rather than natural undulation. Nothing about it announces itself as remarkable, which is perhaps why it has drawn so little attention.

What makes the enclosure genuinely interesting is a tentative identification that edges it toward a specific and turbulent moment in Irish history. In 1650, Ballyshannon Castle, a short distance away, was besieged, most likely during the Cromwellian campaigns that were grinding through Leinster at the time. It has been suggested that this earthwork may have served as an encampment connected with that siege, a temporary fortified position from which besieging forces could operate. A low square platform, roughly ten metres on each side, was recorded inside the bank on the western edge as late as 1987, a feature that could fit the kind of rudimentary field engineering a military encampment might require. By the time more recent surveys were carried out, that platform had disappeared entirely, levelled or eroded beyond recognition. Whether the enclosure predates 1650 and was simply pressed into military use, or was thrown up specifically for the siege, remains an open question.

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Pete F
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