Enclosure, Keale (Coshlea By.), Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Enclosures
In an upland pasture in County Limerick, a roughly circular earthwork sits quietly in the landscape, its original purpose long since detached from living memory.
What survives is a bank enclosing a space of around nineteen metres in diameter, accompanied by an external fosse, that is, a ditch cut into the ground on the outside of the bank, running from the north-west around to the east. The whole thing has, over time, been absorbed into the working geometry of the surrounding farmland, with part of the fosse now serving as an ordinary field boundary. That kind of quiet assimilation is common with these sites, which tend to disappear into the agricultural landscape so thoroughly that they become invisible unless you know what you are looking for.
The enclosure lies in the townland of Keale, in the barony of Coshlea, roughly two hundred and fifty metres west of the townland boundary with Ballynacourty and the same distance from a large forestry plantation. It was recorded on the Ordnance Survey Ireland twenty-five-inch map edition of 1897, which gives at least a late nineteenth-century baseline for its documented existence, though the earthwork itself is almost certainly far older. A gap in the south-east of the bank may represent the original entrance, a detail that, if correct, would align with entrance orientations seen on comparable enclosures elsewhere in Ireland. The site was compiled by Martin Fitzpatrick and uploaded to the record in November 2021.
The monument is not formally signposted, and access would involve crossing private farmland, so permission from the landowner would be the sensible first step. The outline of the enclosure is visible on Google Earth orthoimages, where the ring of trees that has grown along the bank defines the shape clearly from above, making it worth orienting yourself with a satellite view before visiting. On the ground, the bank and fosse are the things to trace; the south-eastern gap is the detail that rewards a careful circuit of the perimeter. Upland pasture in this part of Limerick can be wet underfoot at most times of year, so the drier months offer a more practical approach to the site.