Enclosure, Quigabar, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
Enclosures
In a flat stretch of pasture in County Sligo, the ground holds a subtle but legible secret.
What looks at first like a gentle rise in the field is in fact a subrectangular earthwork, roughly 24.5 metres north to south and 22.2 metres east to west, its interior lifted slightly above the surrounding land and wrapped in an earthen bank that varies in width from 3.3 metres on the north side to 4.7 metres on the south. Low as it is, the enclosure retains a clear profile, with the exterior face dropping away in a broad slope and a shallow fosse, a defensive ditch cut into the ground, still readable along the western and northern edges, measuring between three and four metres wide.
The enclosure belongs to a class of earthwork commonly found across Ireland, where a bank and fosse defined a domestic or agricultural space, sometimes protecting a farmstead, sometimes marking status. What gives this particular example an added layer of interest is a rectangular platform set against the inner face of the bank in the north-east quadrant of the interior. This platform is thought to be the remains of a house, its occupants long gone but the footprint of their dwelling still pressing gently against the enclosing bank. The site did not stand alone, either. Immediately to the north, separated from this enclosure by that same fosse, lay a second enclosure. That one has since been levelled, leaving only the earthwork to the south as evidence that something more complex once occupied this quiet corner of Sligo.