Enclosure, Skehanagh (Pubblebrien By.), Co. Limerick

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Enclosures

Enclosure, Skehanagh (Pubblebrien By.), Co. Limerick

A low, barely perceptible ring in a Limerick pasture might seem an unlikely thing to travel for, yet this small earthwork in Skehanagh, in the barony of Pubblebrien, quietly holds its ground alongside two other ancient monuments within a few hundred metres.

What makes the spot worth pausing over is less any single feature than the clustering: an enclosure, a fulacht fiadh, and a moated site, all within a short walk of one another, each belonging to a different chapter of human activity on the same gentle slope.

The enclosure itself measures roughly 16 metres east to west and 15 metres north to south, making it a modest affair, defined by an earth and stone bank that has largely been worn down to a scarp, a low edge or shelf in the ground rather than a standing bank. A short section of that scarp, running from west-southwest to west-northwest, has been levelled entirely, giving the monument a faintly crescent-like outline on that side. It was already recorded on the revised Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of 1897, depicted there as an oval-shaped earthwork. The Archaeological Survey of Ireland examined it in 2001 and found the interior undulating but clear of overgrowth. The fulacht fiadh nearby, a fulacht fiadh being a type of prehistoric burnt-mound site associated with the heating of water, likely predates the enclosure by a considerable margin, while the moated site to the southwest, a medieval feature typically comprising a raised platform surrounded by a water-filled ditch, belongs to a much later period entirely. The three monuments were compiled for the national record by Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly, with the entry uploaded in August 2020.

The enclosure sits on a slight north-facing slope in gently undulating pasture, with views that are moderate to restricted in most directions. Because the bank has been reduced to little more than a scarp, it reads better from aerial imagery than from ground level; the shape is clearly visible on orthophotos taken between 2011 and 2013 and on a Google Earth image from June 2018. Visitors approaching on foot should look for a subtle change in the ground level rather than any dramatic earthwork, and should be aware that this is agricultural land. Dry conditions make the scarp easiest to read, as wet grass can obscure the slight relief entirely.

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