Enclosure, Doire Mhór Thoir, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Doire Mhór Thoir, Co. Kerry

In the townland of Doire Mhór Thoir, in County Kerry, there is an enclosure.

That much is certain. Beyond the name and the county, the documentary record for this particular site is, for the moment, effectively blank, which places it in curious company with hundreds of other monuments scattered across Ireland that have been identified and catalogued but not yet fully described in any publicly accessible form.

The townland name itself offers a small clue to the landscape. Doire Mhór Thoir translates roughly from Irish as the eastern part of the great oak wood, suggesting a place that was once heavily wooded, though whether any of that woodland character survives today is unclear. Enclosures of the kind found throughout Kerry range enormously in character and date. Some are the remains of ringforts, the circular earthen or stone enclosures that served as farmsteads during the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Others are cashels, the stone-walled equivalent common in the rocky western counties. Still others are later field enclosures or the remnants of ecclesiastical sites. Without further detail, it is not possible to say which category this one falls into, or what condition it is in, or how visible it remains on the ground.

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Pete F
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