Enclosure, Coolnagoppoge, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Enclosures
In the uplands near Kilgarvan, a low rectangular outline sits in the landscape having gone unrecorded for as long as anyone can say.
It is not dramatic, and it was not meant to be. What makes it quietly remarkable is simply that it was there all along, overlooked until a routine archaeological survey ahead of wind farm development brought it to light.
The enclosure was identified by John Cronin and Associates during pre-development fieldwork carried out under licence prior to ESB Wind Development Ltd's proposed wind farm at Coolnagoppoge. The remains consist of a bank of earth and stone running 23.3 metres on a northwest to southeast axis and 9.6 metres across, forming a raised rectangular outline. The bank itself is relatively modest, around 0.45 metres wide and reaching up to 1.5 metres in height in places, with a small outer scarp running around its perimeter. Inside, the ground level sits slightly higher than the surrounding terrain, a detail that often helps distinguish an intentionally constructed enclosure from a natural feature. The whole thing is overgrown, as these things tend to be, and was found approximately 30 metres east of an existing recorded site in the area. The working interpretation is that it served as a livestock enclosure, the kind of utilitarian structure that Kerry's pastoral farming history produced in considerable numbers, usually without anyone thinking to write them down.