Enclosure (Large), Annareagh, Co. Monaghan

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Enclosures

Enclosure (Large), Annareagh, Co. Monaghan

At Annareagh in County Monaghan, a large oval mound sits quietly within a bend of the River Cor, its true nature only becoming apparent when viewed from above.

The feature, roughly 75 metres across east to west and 65 metres north to south, is a gently raised, probably domed area of grassland, and it went entirely unrecorded until 2018. What appears to be a fosse, a defensive or boundary ditch, may run along the perimeter, most clearly on the eastern, southern, and western sides, and a field bank cuts across the whole thing from east to west, with trees marking the points where it crosses the outer edge. These later additions have complicated the picture considerably.

The site came to light not through fieldwork but through LiDAR, a remote-sensing technique that uses laser pulses to reveal subtle variations in ground level that would be invisible to someone walking across a field. Susan Curran first identified the feature from a LiDAR image in 2018, and Jean Charles Caillère independently noted it as well. Its character remains uncertain. The possibility that it was once a tree-ring, a circular planting of trees whose root systems have left a trace in the soil and topography, sits alongside the more conventional reading of an enclosed settlement or ceremonial site. The River Cor curves around it closely on two sides, the stream passing as near as 125 metres to the north, which is the kind of watery, looping setting that in Irish archaeology often signals deliberate, purposeful placement rather than accident.

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