Enclosure, Kilmore, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Kilmore, Co. Tipperary

On a low ridge in the pastureland of south Tipperary, there is an enclosure that was already half-forgotten before the Ordnance Survey came to map it.

The surveyors who produced the standard six-inch maps simply missed it, or found nothing worth recording. Yet the feature was very much there, and it survives today in a form that rewards patience rather than drama: a roughly circular area about eighteen and a half metres across, its edges defined by a scarp so gradual it rises only 1.2 metres over seven metres of ground. To one side, a U-shaped fosse, the kind of external ditch commonly dug around enclosed settlements, remains visible to the south and east, roughly five metres wide and just under a metre deep. The western edge has been lost, possibly cut through by a roadway that runs immediately alongside it.

The enclosure's most useful portrait comes not from any official cartographic record but from a private estate map drawn up in 1815 by the surveyor John Longfield. The document, held in the National Library of Ireland, was commissioned to survey the Tipperary lands of one John Bagwell, covering territory in the old baronies of Iffa and Offa. Longfield's map shows the feature clearly as an enclosure, which means that at the time of the survey it was still legible enough on the ground to be worth depicting, even if the Ordnance surveyors who followed would overlook it entirely. Enclosures of this type, roughly circular earthworks defined by a bank and external ditch, are a common enough form across Ireland, often associated with early medieval settlement, though nothing in the surviving record pins a date or function to this particular example. What can be said is that the monument has since been levelled, reduced to the gentle swell and shallow ditch that a careful eye can still pick out in the pasture today.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Enclosure, Kilmore, Co. Tipperary. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement