Enclosure (Large), Ballyda, Co. Kilkenny

Co. Kilkenny |

Enclosures

Enclosure (Large), Ballyda, Co. Kilkenny

In a pasture field in County Kilkenny, a large circular earthwork sits quietly on a rise above a small east-west river valley, its true scale most legible not from the ground but from the air.

The enclosure measures roughly 100 metres across in total, with an interior diameter of around 80 metres, placing it well above the typical size of a ringfort, the circular earthen enclosures that served as farmsteads and defended homesteads throughout early medieval Ireland. What makes this site particularly unusual is the presence of a substantial rectangular annexe adjoining its northern perimeter, stretching approximately 96 metres from east to west and 25 metres from north to south. Annexes of this kind are not unheard of, but they are uncommon enough to raise questions about how the site was used and who occupied it.

The fosse, a defensive ditch typically dug around the perimeter of such enclosures, is pronounced enough to show clearly on aerial photographs taken across several surveys, including images captured in July 1989, August 1998, and July 2000. Those photographs preserve details that are easy to miss at ground level, particularly the geometry of the annexe, which the eye on foot might read simply as an uneven field boundary. Roughly 100 metres to the north-east lies a smaller enclosure, a separate but perhaps related feature in what appears to be a cluster of earthwork activity in this part of Ballyda. Whether the two sites were contemporary, or whether one preceded the other, remains an open question.

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Pete F
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