Enclosure, Raheen (Coshma By.), Co. Limerick

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Raheen (Coshma By.), Co. Limerick

For decades, this large enclosure in the Raheen townland of County Limerick existed in a kind of cartographic blind spot.

Despite its considerable size, it never made it onto the Ordnance Survey Ireland historic maps, meaning generations of surveyors, historians, and curious walkers passed through the area with no official record to guide them. It took an aircraft and a camera, not a ground survey, to finally bring it to light.

The enclosure was identified during the Bruff aerial photographic survey of 1986, catalogued as Bruff 167 (AP 4/3601). Seen from the air, the monument resolves into a D-shaped form, measuring roughly 85 metres on its northeast to southwest axis and 65 metres northwest to southeast. The curved portion of the D is defined by a scarp, a low earthen slope or edge in the ground surface, running from south around through west and north to northeast. The straight side of the D is formed by a linear ditch running northeast to southwest. This combination of scarp and ditch is characteristic of early enclosures in Ireland, which were often used to define a settled or protected area, though whether this one was a farmstead, a ritual space, or something else remains unrecorded. The site sits in improved pasture approximately 88 metres west of a watercourse that also serves as the townland boundary with Grangeo. Subsequent orthoimagery, including OSi images from 2005 to 2012, DigitalGlobe images from 2011 to 2013, and a Google Earth image from March 2016, have all confirmed the enclosure is clearly legible from above.

The enclosure is on private farmland, so access would require the landowner's permission. Because the monument is defined primarily by subtle earthworks rather than upstanding walls or banks, it is far easier to appreciate in aerial or satellite imagery than on the ground, where the scarp and ditch may read simply as gentle undulations in grazed pasture. Consulting the Google Earth orthoimage or the Bruff survey image alongside any site visit would give a much clearer sense of the enclosure's true shape and extent.

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