Enclosure, Cloonydonigan, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Cloonydonigan, Co. Kerry

Beneath the sycamore plantation and furze scrub at Cloonydonigan, north of Killarney, there may or may not be an ancient enclosure.

The operative word is "may". The site exists in the records primarily as an absence: no visible earthworks, no trace on historic maps, and a location that proved physically impenetrable when investigators tried to get close. What prompted the entry in the first place was a cropmark, the kind of faint discolouration visible from the air when buried features affect the growth of vegetation above them, suggesting that something circular once occupied this ground. Whether that something was a ringfort, a field enclosure, or a structure of another kind entirely remains open.

The site came to light in 2000, when Michael Connolly, County Archaeologist for Kerry County Council, was conducting a landscape assessment across a forty square mile area north of Killarney to help determine a road route. In the course of that survey he identified the cropmark and reported it as a potential enclosure. The location sits at the boundary of a deciduous forestry plantation and a firebreak corridor, on the edge of an ESB buffer zone, and its long axis runs roughly northwest to southeast. What makes the later aerial record quietly interesting is a circular cluster of self-seeded trees that appears in photography from 2015 approximately ten metres to the north of the recorded grid reference. That same cluster is invisible in earlier imagery from 2010, hidden beneath dense furze. The trees grew together too closely and were ringed by furze so thick that fieldwork could not get through them. It is possible this tight, self-contained growth reflects something in the soil beneath; it is also possible it does not.

For anyone curious enough to visit, the practical reality is a reminder that archaeology is often less about dramatic discovery than about reading a landscape that has decided not to cooperate. The sycamore woodland and the furze are not decorative obstacles; they are, at present, the story.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Enclosure, Cloonydonigan, Co. Kerry. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement