Enclosure, Gallaras, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Enclosures
On the low-lying ground east of Smerwick Harbour in Co. Kerry, there is almost nothing left to see, and that near-absence is precisely what makes this site worth knowing about.
A univallate enclosure, meaning one defined by a single boundary bank or wall, once occupied a roughly circular area here on the boundary between two fields. It measured approximately 27 metres across its northeast to southwest axis. It has since been destroyed, and the only trace that remains is a gentle semi-circular curve in the existing field wall, which preserves the line of the eastern arc of the original structure.
The site was recorded in the Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey published by J. Cuppage in 1986, part of the broader Corca Dhuibhne survey produced by Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne. At some point during the destruction of the enclosure, a quernstone came to light. Quernstones are rotary or saddle-shaped grinding stones used to mill grain by hand, and their presence on a site typically suggests domestic or agricultural activity over an extended period. This one, however, was apparently removed and has since gone missing, leaving no physical object to tie the site to any particular period or community. Without it, the enclosure's date and function remain unresolved.
What survives is, in a sense, a negative space. The slight bow in the field boundary on the eastern side is the only above-ground indication that something once stood here, and it is only legible if you already know what you are looking at. The site sits in a landscape dense with early medieval and prehistoric remains, the Gallarus Oratory and the Reask monastic site both lying within a short distance, which gives some context for the kind of long human activity this corner of the Dingle Peninsula has seen. The enclosure itself, though, belongs now more to the category of what has been lost than what can be visited.