Enclosure, Kinmona, Co. Galway

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Kinmona, Co. Galway

On a south-facing slope in Kinmona, County Galway, there is an archaeological site that exists almost entirely on paper.

What was once a substantial oval enclosure, roughly 62 metres long and just over 34 metres wide and defined by a single ring of boulders, has left no visible trace on the ground. The pastureland has been reclaimed, scrub has crept in from the south, and the stones that once marked out this space have either been removed, buried, or absorbed into the field boundaries that replaced them.

The enclosure was classified and recorded by McCaffrey in 1952, who described it as an oval structure formed by one continuous ring of boulders. Enclosures of this type are a recurring feature of the Irish landscape; they could serve any number of purposes, from defining a settlement or farmstead to demarcating land for livestock, and without excavation it is rarely possible to say more than that. What is notable here is the scale. At around 62 metres in length, this was not a small feature. To the south of the enclosure site, there is also a recorded house site, suggesting that this part of Kinmona held a more organised human presence at some point, even if the precise period remains unclear. The relationship between the two features, whether they were contemporary or belonged to entirely different phases of occupation, is unknown.

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