Enclosure, Killurney, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Enclosures
On the southern slopes of Slievenamon, the mountain in County Tipperary whose name translates roughly as "mountain of the women of Fionn", an ancient enclosure sits almost entirely consumed by ferns, brambles, and holly.
Most of its outline has been swallowed by vegetation to the point where the shape of the monument is barely legible on the ground. Only the south-western quadrant of its bank remains relatively legible, rising nearly two metres above the exterior ground surface, where the natural downward slope of the hillside has been put to work as part of the structure's defensive or enclosing logic.
An enclosure of this type is essentially a roughly circular or oval area defined by an earthen bank, sometimes with an accompanying ditch, whose original purpose could range from settlement and agriculture to ritual use. This one measures approximately 25 metres north to south and 28 metres east to west, dimensions drawn from the 25-inch Ordnance Survey mapping rather than from easy observation on the ground. The bank itself is earthen in construction, with stones protruding from its crest and outer face, and its base spreads to around 4.5 metres wide. The interior slopes gently southward, following the hillside's natural incline. Badgers appear to have done considerable damage through burrowing, and a field boundary running north-west to south-east cuts along the northern side, further complicating any reading of the monument's original extent.
The enclosure sits close to a modern dormer bungalow built roughly 75 metres to the west, which gives a sense of how quietly these older features persist alongside ordinary rural life, unannounced and easy to walk past without registering their age or purpose. For anyone approaching through the scrub on Slievenamon's southern flank, the bank in the south-western quarter is the clearest thing to look for; the rest requires patience and a willingness to move slowly through dense undergrowth before the full rough oval of the monument begins to resolve itself.