Enclosure, Urlan More, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Enclosures
In the townland of Urlan More, in County Clare, an enclosure sits in the landscape, recorded and mapped but not yet fully explained.
Enclosures of this kind are among the most common yet least understood monument types in Ireland, ranging from prehistoric field boundaries to early medieval farmsteads, and the simple fact of being listed tells you that something deliberate was built here, that people chose this ground and marked it off from the world around it.
Urlan More itself is a small townland in Clare, a county whose landscape is dense with archaeological remains, from the limestone pavements of the Burren to the ring forts and field systems that pattern its interior. An enclosure, in archaeological terms, is broadly any defined area bounded by a bank, ditch, wall, or combination of these, and the type can span several thousand years of human activity. Without further detail, it is not possible to say whether this particular example is a domestic site, a ceremonial one, or something more functional, and that uncertainty is itself part of what makes it worth noting.