Enclosure, Poulgorm, Co. Clare

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Poulgorm, Co. Clare

On elevated rough pasture in County Clare, an oval enclosure roughly 140 metres north to south and 180 metres east to west sits within a sprawling field system, its perimeter switching between an earthen bank on the southern and western sides and a dry-stone wall that follows a natural limestone shelf along the north.

The combination of earthwork and stone, shaped to the contours of the underlying rock, gives the site an improvised quality, as though its builders worked with whatever the ground offered rather than imposing a strict geometric plan. The views from this elevated position extend clearly in all directions, which may partly explain why someone chose the spot in the first place.

At the eastern centre of the enclosure sits a cashel, a type of stone-walled ringfort characteristic of early medieval Ireland, and within it the remains of an internal house. A second house site lies approximately ten metres to the south of the cashel, suggesting that this was once a small settled community rather than a simple pastoral enclosure. Later subdivision walls running between the cashel and the outer oval boundary point to continued, if changing, use of the space across different periods. The overall picture is of a layered landscape, where an early enclosed settlement was gradually reworked by successive generations farming the same ground. The site sits within a broader field system, indicating that the surrounding land was also actively organised and managed, though precisely when these various phases of activity occurred is difficult to establish without excavation.

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Pete F
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