Enclosure (Large), Crory, Co. Wexford
Co. Wexford |
Enclosures
A large, roughly bulb-shaped enclosure sits in a field near Crory in County Wexford, and most people walking past it would have no idea it was there.
No earthwork rises above the ground, no stone marks its perimeter. What betrays it is a cropmark, the faint differential growth in a crop that reveals buried features below, visible only from above and only under the right conditions. The enclosure measures approximately 70 metres across on a northwest to southeast axis, and its outline is defined by a narrow ditch that does not quite close into a full circle. Instead, at both the north and southeast, the ditch extends outward to the northeast for roughly 85 metres before running up against a field bank and the townland boundary with Castleland, where it disappears from view entirely.
The site slopes gently down toward the southeast, with the River Bann, a quiet meandering watercourse running roughly northeast to southwest through this part of Wexford, lying about 150 metres away. That positioning, near a slope edge above a river, is characteristic of early enclosures in Ireland, many of which were sited to take advantage of natural drainage and proximity to water. The cropmark pattern here is not a simple ring. Parallel ditches running about 10 metres apart extend from the north and meet the enclosure's perimeter at an angle near the northwest, suggesting an annexe or approach corridor of some kind. A further ditch loops outward to the south and east from the western side. This complexity hints at something more than a simple field boundary or livestock enclosure. The site was first brought to wider attention by Jean Charles Caillére, and it is partially visible on aerial imagery from July 2018.
