Enclosure, Danesfort, Co. Kilkenny

Co. Kilkenny |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Danesfort, Co. Kilkenny

In the woods near Danesfort, a circular earthwork roughly fifty metres across sits beneath a canopy of trees, largely unvisited and easy to miss entirely.

It is the kind of feature that reads more clearly on paper than on the ground, where roots, undergrowth, and accumulated leaf litter blur whatever original form the banks and ditches once held.

The enclosure first appears on the Ordnance Survey's six-inch map of 1839, already shown sitting within a woodland plantation, which suggests it had been absorbed into managed land well before cartographers arrived to record it. By the time of the 1947 revision, little had changed in that regard; the trees were still there, the enclosure still within them. Circular enclosures of this kind are a broadly familiar feature of the Irish landscape, typically interpreted as enclosed settlement or farming sites of early medieval date, though without excavation it is rarely possible to say much more than that about any individual example. What makes the Danesfort site quietly interesting is its immediate neighbourhood. A larger enclosure lies roughly a hundred metres to the south-west, and about five hundred metres to the east sits a ringwork and bailey, a type of fortification introduced by the Normans, consisting of a defensive circular earthwork adjoined by an enclosed courtyard area. That concentration of distinct monument types within a small area hints at a landscape that saw repeated use across different periods, each leaving its own mark on the ground.

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, Danesfort, Co. Kilkenny. 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