When topsoil-stripping began along the N22 realignment between Bealagrellagh and Gortatlea in County Kerry, the machinery cut down through the surface layer and exposed a series of features pressed into the subsoil below. What emerged was the outline of a subcircular ditch, roughly a metre wide, enclosing an area approximately 16.6 metres north to south and 15.9 metres across. The ditch does not close into a complete ring; there is a deliberate gap on the north-eastern side that marks an entrance. It is a small, quiet thing to have survived beneath a road corridor, and all the more interesting for how unremarkable it looks on paper.

The excavation, assigned reference OOE0779, was carried out under licence as part of standard archaeological monitoring of the road works. The ditch itself shows some variation in how it was cut: in some sections it takes a sharp V-shape, in others a shallower U-shape, which suggests it was dug in stages rather than in a single continuous effort. Enclosures of this kind, a roughly circular ditch defining a modest interior space with a single entrance, are a recurring form across Irish prehistory. They could serve any number of purposes, from livestock management to ceremonial or domestic use, and the profile of the ditch and the method of construction can sometimes help narrow down the period. This particular site was discussed by Michael Connolly in his 2008 doctoral thesis at University College Cork, which examined prehistoric settlement patterns across the Lee Valley around Tralee, placing the enclosure within a broader landscape of early activity in the area.