This one, in a flat ploughed field near Killinane in County Tipperary, offers nothing of the sort. What is known about it exists almost entirely because of a single aerial photograph taken on 3 August 1996, when the angle of light or the dryness of the soil briefly made visible something that centuries of farming had otherwise erased from the surface entirely.

The site was identified by Michael Moore from aerial survey work carried out that summer. Aerial photography has long been one of archaeology's more unlikely tools: crop marks, soil discolouration, and subtle variations in growth patterns can betray the outline of buried ditches, walls, or banks that leave no trace at ground level. In this case, what the photograph revealed was an enclosure, the term used for a defined area bounded by a ditch or bank, often associated with settlement, agriculture, or ritual use in prehistoric and early medieval Ireland. No surface remains were recorded, and nothing was visible in the ploughsoil itself. The field is described as flat, with good views in all directions, which is itself a detail worth noting: elevated or open ground with wide sightlines was often deliberately chosen by early communities for reasons of defence, visibility, or social display. Whether the enclosure at Killinane reflects any of those intentions, nobody can yet say.