Enclosure, Slievenaglasha, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Slievenaglasha, Co. Clare

On the upland slopes of Slievenaglasha in County Clare, a broad grassed-over wall traces the outline of an enclosure that is easy to miss on the ground but resolves clearly from above in aerial photography.

The structure is subcircular, measuring roughly 68 metres northwest to southeast and 66 metres northeast to southwest, placing it among the larger enclosures of its type in the region. That scale, combined with its elevation and the scrub that has crept across the hillside, gives it a quietly obscured quality, a feature that shaped lives here for an unknown span of time and has since been absorbed almost entirely back into the landscape.

What makes the site particularly compelling is its context. The enclosure sits within an extensive multiperiod field system, meaning layers of agricultural and domestic activity accumulated here across different eras, the boundaries and enclosures of one period sometimes overlapping or reusing those of another. On the southeastern aspect of a northeast-southwest rise in the terrain, its position was presumably chosen deliberately, sheltered from prevailing weather while still commanding the surrounding upland. Roughly 87 metres to the northwest lies a wedge tomb, a type of megalithic monument typically dating to the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, characterised by a long tapering stone chamber. Only 16 metres to the south-southwest sits a hut site, the remains of a small domestic structure. Together these features suggest the enclosure was not an isolated installation but part of a denser pattern of use stretching across the hillside over a very long period.

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Pete F
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