Enclosure, Glanrastel, Co. Kerry

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Glanrastel, Co. Kerry

In the bogland of Glanrastel in south-west Kerry, a roughly square arrangement of collapsed drystone walling protrudes just above the surface of the bog, its lower course of stones still visible after what may have been centuries of slow submersion.

The structure sits within the western sector of a larger enclosure, an area defined by a wall that, though largely fallen, retains enough form to show its original intention: a roughly built but deliberate boundary, about six and a half metres from north to south and six metres east to west.

Four large boulders were incorporated into the wall at key points, one each at the north-west, south-east, and south-west corners, and a fourth set into the east wall. This kind of feature, where substantial natural stones are used as anchoring points within a drystone construction, is a practical technique that appears in various early Irish field and settlement monuments. The interior of the small enclosure slopes downward to the south-east, where it levels off and is scattered with rubble. Sixteen metres to the south-east lies a hut site, suggesting this was once part of a small cluster of related structures rather than an isolated curiosity. The wall thickness of around half a metre and the surviving height of roughly sixty centimetres give a sense of modest but purposeful building. The bog itself has done much of the preservation work here, holding the lowest course of stones in place even as the upper structure collapsed around them.

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Pete F
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