Enclosure, Lounaghan, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Lounaghan, Co. Kerry

On the north-eastern slope of Knockbrack Mountain in Kerry, a low drystone wall traces an almost perfect circle in the mountain pasture, its southern section still standing to a height of around 1.1 metres.

The enclosure measures roughly 15.85 metres east to west and 14.7 metres north to south, and its interior remains notably level, suggesting deliberate construction on ground that naturally slopes. The outer base of the wall is laid with large stone slabs placed both lengthways and end-on, a technique that gives the structure a solid footing even where the upper courses have since collapsed.

What makes this enclosure particularly curious is what the historical maps reveal about its apparent shape. When the Ordnance Survey recorded the site at six-inch scale in 1846, it was mapped as a square enclosure measuring approximately 8 metres across. By the time the same survey was repeated in 1895, it appeared as a roughly circular enclosure of around 16 metres in diameter. Whether those two depictions represent different structures, different surveyors interpreting the same remains differently, or genuine change to the fabric of the site in the intervening half-century is not entirely clear. The enclosure sits within a relict field system, the term used for the fragmentary remains of agricultural boundaries that have long since fallen out of use, which suggests the area was once organised farmland, though the enclosure's specific function has not been firmly established.

The site sits at the foot of a natural terrace on the mountain, which means the ground around it still retains something of the arrangement it would have had when in use. The surrounding field system adds context, even if both elements are now quiet and overgrown, traces of organisation in a landscape that has largely returned to rough pasture.

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Pete F
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