Enclosure, Crohanree, Co. Kildare
Co. Kildare |
Enclosures
Somewhere beneath the fields of Crohanree in County Kildare, a pair of ancient enclosures lies entirely invisible at ground level, detectable only from the air. What appears on the surface as ordinary farmland reveals itself, under the right conditions, as a ghost of earlier occupation, the outlines of vanished structures preserved as cropmarks, variations in plant growth that betray what lies beneath the soil.
The site consists of a sub-circular enclosure defined by a fosse, which is a defensive or boundary ditch typically dug to demarcate a settlement or ceremonial space, and a rectilinear annexe with rounded corners positioned to the west. The annexe partially wraps around the enclosure along its northern side, suggesting the two elements were related in function or period, though the precise nature of that relationship remains unclear. What is known comes from a single aerial photograph, reference GB89.AI.27, in which the cropmarks are legible enough to record both features with some confidence. The site was catalogued under the references KD030-010001 for the main enclosure and KD030-010002 for the annexe.