Enclosure, Derryco, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Derryco, Co. Kerry

Just south-east of Derryco Church in north Kerry, a circular earthen enclosure survives in the landscape with a quiet stubbornness that the fields around it have done their best to undermine.

A bohareen, one of the narrow unpaved lanes that thread through rural Ireland, has cut into its western side, and a fieldbank has bitten into its northern edge. What remains is still coherent enough to read clearly: an earthen bank that steps outward as it descends, rising to a maximum of 1.3 metres above the surrounding ground on the exterior, while the interior side is lower, only about half a metre above the ground enclosed within.

Enclosures of this type, sometimes called ringforts or raths depending on their construction and context, are among the most common archaeological monuments in Ireland, yet each one carries its own particular character in the ground. They were typically built and occupied during the early medieval period, functioning as enclosed farmsteads for a single family or extended household. The internal diameter here measures approximately 27 metres north to south, which falls within the typical range for a site of this kind. The stepped profile of the exterior bank is a detail worth noting; it suggests careful original construction rather than simple piling of spoil, and it has survived well enough to remain legible more than a thousand years after whoever built it finished the work. The site was recorded as part of C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995.

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