Enclosure, Tullakeel, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Tullakeel, Co. Kerry

In a boggy, south-sloping pasture on the western side of the Ardsheelhane river valley in County Kerry, there is a stone enclosure that does not appear on any Ordnance Survey map.

That absence is part of what makes it interesting. The site exists in the landscape without any official cartographic acknowledgement, noticed only by those who happen across it or seek it out through archaeological literature.

The enclosure is roughly subcircular in plan, measuring just under eleven metres north to south and nearly thirteen metres east to west. What is unusual about its construction is the way it incorporates the natural terrain rather than working against it: the northern and southern sectors of the boundary are formed not by built stonework but by natural rock outcrops, the underlying geology pressed into service as a ready-made wall. The western half is more deliberately constructed, with a series of stone slabs set upright and on edge, each averaging around half a metre in height and slightly less in width. The eastern side has fared worst over time, reduced to little more than a scatter of large boulders. Stone enclosures of this kind were used across early medieval Ireland for a range of purposes, from farming and animal management to settlement and ritual, and without excavation it is difficult to assign this one to any particular function or period. It was recorded and described by archaeologists A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan in their 1996 survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, published by Cork University Press, which remains one of the most thorough treatments of this quietly archaeology-rich corner of Kerry.

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Pete F
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