Enclosure, Moanleana, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Enclosures
Somewhere in the flat pastureland of Moanleana in County Limerick, a low rectangular platform rises almost imperceptibly from the surrounding fields.
It is not dramatic. Nothing about it announces itself. But the geometry is too deliberate, the edges too consistently shaped, to be a natural accident of the ground. This is an earthwork enclosure, and the very ordinariness of its setting is part of what makes it quietly unsettling.
The site was recorded and compiled by Denis Power, with notes uploaded in August 2011. The enclosure is roughly rectangular, measuring approximately 45 metres on its north-northeast to south-southwest axis and just over 72 metres across from west-northwest to east-southeast. Its edges are defined by a scarped profile, meaning the ground has been deliberately cut and shaped to create a slope, rather than built up with a bank in the more familiar ringfort manner. On the outer face, this scarp rises to about 1.3 metres, while the inner lip is a much subtler 0.35 metres. A possible external fosse, a shallow ditch roughly 0.85 metres deep, runs along part of the perimeter, though there is some suggestion this depression may have served as a quarry source for nearby earthen field boundaries rather than as a defensive feature in its own right. Inside, the ground is level, and a low earthen bank, only 0.25 metres high, crosses the interior on a north-northeast to south-southwest line, slightly east of centre. The enclosure has been absorbed into the working landscape over time; the scarped edge is now incorporated into an existing field boundary along part of its circuit, and another boundary skirts the external base of the scarp.
Accessing the site means working within an agricultural landscape, so courtesy to landowners is essential before venturing into the fields. There are no formal facilities or signage. The enclosure reads best from ground level by walking the perimeter and watching for the change in elevation underfoot, particularly on the outer scarp where the drop is most pronounced. The interior bank, low as it is, becomes more legible in raking light, so early morning or late afternoon visits in spring or autumn, when vegetation is shorter and shadows are long, will give the clearest sense of the earthwork's shape.