Somewhere beneath a field in Newpark, Co. Kildare, lies the ghost of a circular enclosure that has not been visible to anyone standing on the ground for a very long time. It only revealed itself from the air, and only briefly, in the summer of 2018.

The enclosure came to light as a cropmark on aerial photography taken on 28 June 2018. Cropmarks form when buried features, such as the filled-in ditches of an ancient enclosure, affect the growth of crops above them. Soil that has accumulated in a former ditch tends to retain more moisture and nutrients, causing the plants above it to grow taller or greener than the surrounding field, tracing the shape of whatever lies beneath. In this case, the mark describes a rough circle approximately 34 metres in diameter, with what appears to be an entrance gap on the eastern side. Circular enclosures of this type are among the most common archaeological features in the Irish landscape, and they range considerably in date and function, from prehistoric burial sites to the enclosed farmsteads known as raths or ring-forts that were widely built and occupied during the early medieval period. Without excavation it is not possible to say which category this one belongs to, or when it was in use. What the aerial photograph does confirm is that something was deliberately constructed here, on a scale suggesting a substantial and purposeful boundary.