Enclosure, Shronahiree More, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Shronahiree More, Co. Kerry

On the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, a rough circle of boulders sits quietly in the landscape, its entrance gap still legible after what may be centuries of slow ruin.

The structure is modest in scale, measuring just 4.2 metres by 3.6 metres, and the opening to the south is barely three quarters of a metre wide. It is the kind of thing that rewards a careful eye and means little at a glance.

The enclosure lies some 70 metres to the north-east of a river, a placement that may reflect practical logic, proximity to water without the risk of flooding, though its original purpose is not recorded. Circular boulder enclosures of this type appear throughout Kerry and the wider west of Ireland, and their functions varied considerably; some were used to pen livestock, others had a more ceremonial or domestic role. Without excavation, this one keeps its purpose to itself. It was documented as part of the archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan and published by Cork University Press in 1996, a systematic effort to catalogue the remarkable density of archaeological remains across one of Ireland's most archaeologically layered landscapes.

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