Enclosure, Drumleagh, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Enclosures
On the lower slopes of the Galty mountains in County Tipperary, a small oval enclosure sits on ground that was deliberately engineered to be flat.
The eastern side of its platform was built up to a height of 1.6 metres, effectively terracing the hillside so that whoever lived or worked here had level footing. That kind of deliberate construction, quiet and unannounced on an east-facing slope north-east of Knocknanuss mountain, is what sets this site apart from the kind of ruin that simply collapsed in place.
The enclosure itself is oval, measuring roughly 5 metres north to south and 9 metres east to west on the interior, with walls about 0.85 metres thick built from red sandstone, the local stone of the Galty range. Those walls have since collapsed, leaving the outline readable rather than upright. Immediately to the south-east of the main hut site sits a small rectangular stone structure, roughly 2.4 metres across, its purpose unrecorded but its proximity to the larger oval suggestive of some ancillary function, perhaps storage or a secondary shelter. Enclosures of this kind, sometimes called hut sites, are found throughout upland Ireland and tend to reflect seasonal or pastoral use of high ground, cattle-herding communities making temporary or semi-permanent homes on land that was too exposed for year-round settlement. The careful platform-building here, though, implies something more considered than a rough seasonal camp.
