Enclosure, Dunnstown, Co. Kildare

Co. Kildare |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Dunnstown, Co. Kildare

In a level field of improved pasture near Dunnstown in County Kildare, six small enclosures lie completely invisible to anyone walking the ground. No bank, ditch, or rise in the turf gives them away. The only evidence that they exist at all comes from a single aerial photograph, on which the outlines of all six appear as cropmarks, the faint discolouration that forms when buried features affect how plants grow and ripen above them, creating shadows of the past that are legible only from the air under the right conditions.

The six earthworks, each roughly rectangular in plan, are arranged in two parallel rows of three, spread across an overall area of approximately 150 metres on the northwest to southeast axis and around 100 metres across. That regularity, two neat rows within a broader rectangular footprint, hints at some deliberate organisation, though nothing in what survives above or below the surface explains what these enclosures contained, who built them, or when. Small rectangular enclosures of this kind can appear in many periods of Irish prehistory and early medieval settlement, used variously for livestock, habitation, or cultivation, but no specific date or function has been established for these particular examples.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Enclosure, Dunnstown, Co. Kildare. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement