Enclosure, Derry, Co. Limerick

Co. Limerick |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Derry, Co. Limerick

On a south-facing slope just below the brow of a hill in County Limerick, a roughly rectangular enclosure sits quietly in pasture, its boundaries made up of two different kinds of barrier that appear to belong to different moments in time.

One side is formed by an earthen bank, the other by a collapsed dry-stone wall, and where the two meet at the south-east corner, the wall runs along the outer base of the bank and reaches its greatest surviving height of around 0.8 metres. The combination of these two distinct enclosing methods in a single structure is the sort of detail that tends to catch the eye of a fieldwork surveyor.

The site was recorded by Denis Power and uploaded to the survey database in August 2011. The enclosure measures approximately 37 metres north to south and 33.6 metres east to west, giving it a footprint substantial enough to suggest it once served a practical purpose, whether as a farmstead boundary, an enclosure for livestock, or something earlier altogether. Enclosures of this general type, a defined area bounded by bank and wall, are found across Ireland in a variety of periods and contexts, and without excavation it is rarely possible to pin one to a specific date. What the record captures here is a layered structure: the earthen bank survives to an internal height of 0.6 metres on the south-east to west arc, while the dry-stone wall, now collapsed, runs from north-east to south-west. A low rubble wall, only 0.3 metres high and about a metre wide, runs along the top of the bank between the south-south-west and south-west points, suggesting later reuse or repair of the original boundary.

Access to the site is complicated by its condition. Dense vegetation covers the section running from west to north-east, making that portion of the enclosing element difficult to trace on the ground. The interior dips towards the centre and is thick with trees and nettles, so any close inspection requires patience and appropriate clothing. A recent dwelling sits immediately to the west of the enclosure, meaning the surrounding landscape has changed considerably in living memory. Visitors approaching across the pasture should look first for the south-east corner, where the relationship between bank and wall is clearest and the stonework most legible.

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Pete F
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