Enclosure, Clooneen, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Enclosures
Tucked within the southern interior of a large cashel near Clooneen in County Clare, a small rectangular enclosure survives in a state that rewards careful attention.
A cashel is a stone-walled ringfort, typically built in the early medieval period as a farmstead or place of refuge, and the one here is notably large and roughly oval in plan. Inside it, occupying the southern section, sits a secondary enclosure measuring thirteen metres north to south and eight and a half metres east to west, its drystone walls constructed with a deliberate and somewhat unusual technique: each stone is placed on its narrow side with its long axis pointing inward, towards the centre of the space.
This method of laying stones, sometimes called herringbone or edge-setting depending on the precise arrangement, differs from the more common flat-course approach and suggests either a particular functional intention or a distinct local building tradition. The enclosure has a single entrance, just thirty centimetres wide, positioned at the northern end of the eastern wall. That is an exceptionally narrow gap, too tight for cattle and barely sufficient for a person moving with purpose, which raises quiet questions about what the space was used for and who, or what, was meant to pass through it.