Enclosure, Moneystown, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Moneystown, Co. Wicklow

On a gentle slope in Moneystown, County Wicklow, there is a small circular earthwork that nobody can quite agree on.

Barely five metres across internally, it sits on grazing land with open views to the north-east, enclosed by a low earthen bank that rises no more than forty centimetres on its highest side. Gorse, hawthorn, and a copper beech have colonised it thoroughly enough to make any confident reading of the ground almost impossible.

The uncertainty is the point. The bank, which ranges from two and a half to three and a half metres wide, could mark the edge of a ring-barrow, a type of burial monument in which a mound or flat central area is surrounded by a circular bank, common across Ireland and Britain from the Bronze Age onward. Equally, it might be the remnant of a hut site, a much more domestic origin entirely. Scattered stone found at the perimeter and inside the enclosure is thought to be dumped field clearance material rather than structural evidence either way, which leaves the question open. Locally, the place is called a raheen, a term derived from the Irish word for a small fort or enclosure, and one that tends to be applied informally to any small, circular, earthwork feature whose original purpose has become obscure over time.

The site sits on a slope with average to good grazing around it, the kind of unremarkable agricultural land that has absorbed, buried, and half-erased countless features over centuries. Without excavation, or at least without clearing the present undergrowth, its true character remains genuinely undetermined, which is itself a fairly honest summary of how many such small earthworks across rural Ireland persist: noticed, named in the local memory, but not fully understood.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Enclosure, Moneystown, Co. Wicklow. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement