Enclosure, Meenogahane, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Meenogahane, Co. Kerry

Northwest of Meenogahane pier in County Kerry, a cluster of stone enclosures sits in a field without ever having appeared on any edition of the Ordnance Survey maps.

Locally they are known as the 'Cahireens', a diminutive form of the Irish word cathair, referring to a stone fort or enclosure, and the name alone suggests these structures have been known and named by people in the area long before any formal survey took account of them. That quiet persistence in local memory, combined with their absence from official cartography, gives the site an unusual quality, something recognised by neighbours but overlooked by the apparatus of record.

The complex is more intricate than a first glance at a grassy field might suggest. The largest element is a roughly square stone structure measuring just under fifteen metres on each side. Immediately to its south sits a smaller sub-rectangular enclosure, around twelve metres across, though the bank on its southern and eastern sides has been levelled, reducing what were once more prominent earthworks. A six-metre-wide opening to the southeast leads into a U-shaped depression roughly one and a half metres deep, its curve oriented northward, a feature whose original function is not entirely clear but which may have served as an entrance passage or holding area of some kind. A further small enclosure, roughly five by seven metres, abuts the exterior on the southwest side. All of the structures are built from stone, and none stand particularly tall today, averaging around sixty centimetres in height. In the northern part of the same field, there is evidence of quarrying, which may account for some of the disturbance to the site over time. The enclosures were recorded and described in the North Kerry Archaeological Survey, compiled by C. Toal and published in 1995, which remains the principal source of detailed information about the site.

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