Enclosure, Garraun Beg, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Enclosures
In the townland of Garraun Beg, in the layered landscape of County Kerry, there sits an enclosure old enough to have been recorded as an archaeological monument, yet quiet enough that almost nothing about it has made it into public circulation.
Enclosures of this kind, found across Ireland in their hundreds, are among the more ambiguous features of the rural landscape. The term covers a broad range of structures, from prehistoric earthen ringforts to early medieval farmstead boundaries, typically defined by an earthen bank, a stone wall, or a combination of both, enclosing a roughly circular or oval area. They can be domestic, defensive, ceremonial, or agricultural in origin, and distinguishing between these purposes often requires close excavation or detailed survey work.
Garraun Beg lies in Kerry, a county whose archaeology ranges from megalithic tombs on exposed hillsides to the densely packed field systems of the Dingle Peninsula, and where enclosures of various periods have been identified across both upland and lowland terrain. The specific character of this particular site, its size, its construction, its date, and what if anything has been found within or around it, remains undocumented in any publicly accessible form at this time. It is a named place on the archaeological record, marked and counted, but not yet described.
