Enclosure (Large), Ballynacloghy, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Enclosures

Enclosure (Large), Ballynacloghy, Co. Galway

On a south-facing slope in rough grassland near Ballynacloghy in County Galway, a large irregular enclosure sits in a state of considerable dilapidation, most of its original boundary now visible only as a low, stony mound.

Measuring roughly 72 metres east to west, the structure was once defined by a drystone wall, a type of walling built without mortar, relying instead on carefully stacked stones for stability. That wall has long since collapsed, and later agricultural field walls have been laid directly over portions of it, cutting across the monument in at least two directions. A 2-metre entrance gap survives on the eastern side, its northern edge still marked by a large upright slab, one of the few elements that reads clearly as deliberate construction.

The enclosure was recorded locally under the name Parknaree, and when the writer Holt noted it in 1912, the only tradition still attached to the place was a belief that people had been buried within it. That single fragment of folk memory is suggestive, though whether it points to a genuine burial use, a later association, or simply the kind of unease that tends to accumulate around old earthworks is impossible to say. Enclosures of this type in the Irish landscape are often loosely called raths or forts, terms that cover a broad range of enclosed settlements and ceremonial sites from the early medieval period, though the precise date and function of this particular example is not recorded. Complicating the picture further is the presence, within the eastern half of the interior, of the remains of a second, smaller enclosure, suggesting the site has a layered history. By 2019, houses had been built in the field immediately to the west, pressing the modern world up against whatever remains of Parknaree.

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Pete F
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