Enclosure, Kilgulbin, Co. Kerry

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Kilgulbin, Co. Kerry

At Kilgulbin in north County Kerry, there is an archaeological site where there is, in the most literal sense, nothing to see.

A circular enclosure, the kind of earthwork that typically survives as a low ring of raised ground or a shallow depression, was recorded on Ordnance Survey maps made in 1841 to 1842 and again in 1898. At some point between then and now, it was completely levelled, leaving no visible trace on the landscape.

Circular enclosures in Ireland take many forms, from simple ringforts used as defended farmsteads in the early medieval period to prehistoric ceremonial enclosures of much earlier date. Without surviving physical evidence, it is impossible to say with certainty which category this particular site belonged to, or when it was built. What the two map surveys confirm is that it was still recognisable as a feature in the ground as late as the end of the nineteenth century, which makes its subsequent disappearance a relatively modern loss. The site was recorded in C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995, where it appears as entry number 754, already noted as gone.

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