Enclosure, Shanballyduff, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Shanballyduff, Co. Tipperary

At Shanballyduff in County Tipperary, a low earthwork sits in ordinary pasture on a gentle north-facing slope, easy to overlook and easier still to mistake for a trick of the land.

It is a sub-circular enclosure, slightly wedge-shaped, measuring roughly 41 metres north to south and 46 metres east to west. The boundary that defines it is not a wall but an earthen scarp, a gradual slope of compacted soil about six metres wide and less than a metre high, the kind of feature that registers as a slight rise underfoot before the mind catches up with what it is seeing.

The enclosure is formed by two distinct elements. To the west and south, straight linear scarps define the edges, while a curving scarp sweeps around the northern arc from north-west through north-east to south-east, with a chord of around 53 metres. Outside the circuit, the remains of a fosse, a defensive or boundary ditch, are still traceable along the south-western, western, and northern sides. What makes the site particularly interesting is that the linear scarps to the west and south do not stop at the enclosure's edges; they continue on the same alignment outward into the surrounding landscape, suggesting this feature was once part of a larger system of earthworks rather than a self-contained ring. A field boundary now runs along the southern and western sides, and a public road passes just outside to the south, while a disused track heading to a long-abandoned house borders it to the west. Those modern boundaries have quietly absorbed and partially preserved what was already old.

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Pete F
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