Enclosure, Derrynafinnia, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Derrynafinnia, Co. Kerry

On a south-facing slope above the Clydagh River in County Kerry, a small rectangular enclosure sits quietly in rough heather pasture, easy to miss and difficult to date.

What marks it out is the disproportion between its dimensions: sixteen metres from east to west, but only 2.2 metres from north to south. That is a long, narrow strip of defined space, enclosed on four sides by walls in varying states of survival, with a collapsed entrance at the western end suggested by a scatter of boulders and loose stone.

The construction is drystone throughout, the technique of building without mortar that has been used in Ireland from the prehistoric period well into the modern era. The northern wall is the most deliberately engineered of the four, cut a metre into the hillside to create a level foundation against the upslope. The southern boundary does double duty, serving also as a field boundary running east to west across the hillside. The eastern wall has largely collapsed. Together the walls stand no more than 0.8 metres high where they survive, their surfaces long since colonised by the same heather that covers the surrounding ground. Whether the enclosure once sheltered livestock, stored turf, or served some other agricultural purpose, the notes do not say, and no date has been assigned to it.

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Pete F
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