Enclosure, Glantrasna, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Glantrasna, Co. Kerry

On the north-west-facing slope of Coomnadiha Mountain in Kerry, half-swallowed by bog, a small D-shaped enclosure sits in rough hill pasture with little to announce its presence.

The straight southern wall stretches just over nine metres, and the curved remainder of the perimeter was once built in dry-stone, a technique in which stones are laid without mortar, relying entirely on weight and careful selection. The wall, where it still stands, reaches about a metre in height and tapers from the base upward, the lower course just a single stone wide and now protruding above the surrounding bog surface like a low dark hem.

What survives is partial. A section of the north-east wall has come down, and most of the south-west corner has collapsed entirely, leaving rubble scattered along the line of the perimeter. The enclosure measures roughly 5.7 metres north to south, making it a modest space, more consistent with a small agricultural or pastoral enclosure than any grand construction. Such field enclosures are found across the uplands of Kerry, often of uncertain date and purpose, built and abandoned by farming communities whose names and precise intentions went unrecorded. The bog that has crept up around the lower stonework tells its own slow story of changed land conditions and long disuse.

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Pete F
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