Enclosure, Lughinny, Co. Kilkenny

Co. Kilkenny |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Lughinny, Co. Kilkenny

Something about this enclosure at Lughinny does not quite add up, and that is precisely what makes it worth attention.

Sitting on a small, fairly level terrace on the eastern side of a north-south valley in County Kilkenny, it occupies a position that offers wide views to the north, south, and west, while a steep, wooded valley side closes things off immediately to the east. That combination of openness and abrupt enclosure gives the site a slightly disorienting quality, as though whoever chose the spot was weighing visibility against shelter in ways we can no longer fully read.

The monument itself is sub-rectangular, measuring roughly 35 metres north to south and 32 metres east to west, and is defined by a stony bank that stands noticeably higher on the outside than the inside, reaching between one and one and a half metres externally while rising only around 0.4 metres from the interior. This kind of earthwork, where a raised bank encloses a roughly level interior, is broadly characteristic of the enclosed farmsteads and settlement sites that were built across Ireland from the early medieval period onward, though without excavation the precise date and function here remain open questions. What is geometrically odd about this particular example is that the southern and western sides of the bank run straight, while the northern and eastern sides curve continuously into one another. In the eastern quadrant the bank disappears altogether, and the boundary is instead defined by the natural slope being cut back to form a terrace, a drop of around half a metre serving the same demarcating purpose as the missing stonework. Trees have colonised the level interior in some number, giving the enclosed space a more sheltered and enclosed feel than the surrounding landscape might suggest.

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