Enclosure, Muing, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Muing, Co. Kerry

Beneath a busy road junction in Co. Kerry, the ghost of a large circular enclosure lies almost entirely erased.

What survives is a single quadrant, roughly 100 metres by 70 metres, tucked between the meeting points of four townlands, Clash East, Clash West, Ballybeggan, and Muing East. The oddity is that the boundary between Clash West and Muing East still follows the curve of the old enclosure, as though the land itself remembers a shape that the ground no longer shows. There are no crop marks, no visible earthworks at the junction, and no indication to a passing driver that the whole site, had it survived intact, would have measured something in the region of 200 metres by 140 metres, making it a substantial circular enclosure of the kind typically associated with early medieval settlement or ritual use in Ireland.

The site came to light only because of an aerial photograph taken in 1965 from approximately 1,500 feet, which revealed the enclosure's outline in sufficient detail to allow its extent to be calculated. By the time surveyors examined the ground in the 1990s, housing construction had destroyed the greater part of the interior. One portion, however, had been spared, not through any formal protection but because it was already recognised as a burial ground. The Ordnance Survey's second edition map of 1896 marked a disused burial ground immediately to the north of the surviving quadrant, and that ground, now known as God's Acre, is still there. It dates from the Famine period, one of many informal burial sites across Ireland where those who died during the catastrophe of the 1840s were interred without the resources for headstones or formal grave markers. None survive here. An overgrown laneway, now disused, separates the burial ground from the enclosure remnant. The bank of the enclosure itself survives in places, though its makeup, largely dry-stone walling, suggests significant later modification or reconstruction, and it stands little more than a metre high with a comparable width at its base.

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, Muing, Co. Kerry. 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