Enclosure, Cloghnadromin, Co. Limerick

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Cloghnadromin, Co. Limerick

Somewhere in the townland of Cloghnadromin in County Limerick, a near-perfect circle pressed into the earth has gone largely unnoticed at ground level, visible only when seen from above.

The site is a circular enclosure measuring approximately 35 metres in diameter, and it belongs to a category of monument that can be easy to miss when walking the land but becomes unmistakable the moment a satellite or aircraft passes overhead.

The enclosure was identified not through fieldwork or archival research but through aerial photography, spotted on Bing Maps and Google Earth by Denis Power, who recorded it in June 2013. This is increasingly how such sites come to light. Ireland's countryside is threaded with circular earthworks of various kinds, including ring forts, sometimes called raths or lios, which were enclosed farmsteads typically dating from the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Whether this particular enclosure belongs to that tradition, or represents something older or more specialised, is not documented in the available record. What is known is its shape and its approximate size, and that it survived long enough, in some form, to register from the air.

Because the site was identified remotely rather than surveyed on the ground, there is no formal access point, no signage, and no confirmed indication of what a visitor would actually encounter at the spot. The townland name itself, Cloghnadromin, suggests a place with its own quiet history, though the enclosure's condition, whether it survives as a raised bank, a cropmark, or a subtle depression in a field, is not recorded. Those with a serious interest in tracking it down would do well to cross-reference the aerial imagery with the relevant Ordnance Survey sheets and to check with the National Monuments Service, which maintains records of sites formally assessed and scheduled. Late summer, when crops are mature and soil moisture varies, is generally the best time to see cropmark sites from the air or in satellite imagery.

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Pete F
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