Enclosure, Gowran, Co. Kilkenny

Co. Kilkenny |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Gowran, Co. Kilkenny

Beneath a field of tillage outside Gowran, Co. Kilkenny, the outlines of what was once a substantial enclosed settlement are completely invisible to anyone standing on the ground.

The site exists, effectively, only from the air. Cropmarks, the subtle variations in crop colour and growth that occur when buried foundations or ditches affect how plants absorb moisture and nutrients, have preserved the geometry of this place in a way that no surface feature could. What the aerial view reveals is not a simple ring or ring-fort outline but something more complicated: two roughly concentric enclosures of slightly different shapes, not aligned to each other in any tidy way.

The inner enclosure measures roughly 60 metres on its northeast to southwest axis and about 54 metres east to west. The outer one is a little larger, running approximately 65 metres north to south and 70 metres east to west. They are not concentric in the strict sense; the gap between the two enclosing elements varies from around 6 metres to as much as 14 metres at different points, suggesting the site developed in stages or was adapted over time rather than laid out in a single planned episode. The northern side of the enclosure is obscured by an area of marshy scrub, where the change in vegetation prevents any cropmark from forming. The full picture, then, remains partial. Two further linear cropmarks extend eastward and south-eastward from the outer enclosure, running for roughly 20 and 40 metres respectively before meeting a curving outer cropmark that arcs from northeast to south. This outermost feature may belong to an associated field system, hinting that the enclosed area was not an isolated structure but part of a broader, organised landscape. The site was first photographed by Mick Moore on 22 July 2000, and the cropmarks were later identified on satellite imagery dated 14 July 2018 by Simon Dowling.

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Pete F
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