Enclosure, Mangerton, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Mangerton, Co. Kerry

On the south-east-facing slope of Mangerton Mountain in County Kerry, just above the west bank of the Kealgorm River, a roughly oval arrangement of collapsed stonework sits in rough upland pasture.

It is easy to walk past without registering it as anything deliberate, yet the dimensions are consistent and the construction considered: a drystone wall, now reduced to about 0.4 metres in height and 0.8 metres thick, encloses a subcircular space measuring roughly 6.6 metres north to south and 5.2 metres east to west. The builders compensated for the natural fall of the hillside by raising the south-east portion of the interior floor, which suggests the enclosure was intended to be usable as level ground rather than simply to mark a boundary. A possible entrance survives on the east side, and loose stones scattered around the outside are most likely the remnants of wall material that has slipped outward over time.

Drystone enclosures of this kind are found across upland Kerry, and while their precise dates are difficult to establish without excavation, many are associated with early pastoral activity or seasonal settlement, the practice of moving livestock to higher ground in summer months. What gives this particular example added interest is the presence of a hut site approximately 25 metres to the east, a low structural remnant that hints at some form of habitation or working life in the area. Together, the enclosure and the hut site suggest a small functional complex, modest in scale but deliberate in layout, positioned to make use of the river and the grazing on the mountain's lower slopes. The large stones forming the base of the north wall point to some care in construction, even if time and weather have reduced the whole to little more than a traceable outline in the grass.

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Pete F
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