This one, sitting on a south-facing slope amid the low-lying pastureland of Newtown in County Galway, is square. That alone marks it out. Forty metres from north to south, forty metres from east to west, it is a precise and deliberate shape, and precision of that kind tends to raise more questions than it answers.

The enclosure is defined by an earthen bank and an external fosse, which is the term for a ditch dug to reinforce the boundary, with the spoil typically thrown inward to build up the bank. Around the south-east, west, and north-north-west sections, the bank survives in recognisable form. Elsewhere, the ground itself does the work, and a natural or modified scarp serves as the enclosing element. A small stream runs away to the south-east. Square enclosures of this kind in Ireland are sometimes associated with ecclesiastical sites or with later medieval activity, though without excavation it is difficult to say more with confidence about this particular example. The geometry is suggestive, but the land keeps its own counsel.