Enclosure, Gearhanagoul, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Gearhanagoul, Co. Kerry

On a south-facing slope above the Coomeelan stream in County Kerry, a low oval wall of large stones pushes up through the surface of the bog as though the ground itself is slowly releasing something it had been keeping.

The enclosure is modest in scale, roughly ten metres east to west and eight metres north to south, with a partially collapsed wall averaging less than a metre in height. Several upright stones remain visible along the perimeter, giving the structure a quiet formality despite its ruined state.

What makes the site particularly interesting is not the enclosure itself so much as what surrounds it. Within a radius of roughly sixty metres, the landscape contains at least two further enclosures to the north-east, a possible boulder-burial, and a fulacht fia to the east. A fulacht fia is a type of ancient cooking or processing site, typically identified by a horseshoe-shaped mound of fire-cracked stone beside a trough or hollow, and they are found across Ireland in considerable numbers, often near water. Their presence beside enclosures is not unusual, but the clustering of so many distinct monument types in such a small area of rough hill pasture suggests this stretch of the Coomeelan valley was used in a sustained and varied way across prehistoric time. The boulder-burial, if confirmed, would add a funerary dimension to a landscape that otherwise reads as domestic and functional.

The enclosure sits on a level break in the slope, the kind of natural platform that would have recommended itself immediately to anyone looking to build or shelter in an otherwise exposed hillside. The bog has done much of the work of preservation here, sealing what the centuries might otherwise have carried off.

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Pete F
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