Enclosure, Urlan More, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Enclosures
In the townland of Urlan More in County Clare, there is an enclosure old enough to have been formally recorded as an archaeological monument, yet quiet enough that almost nothing about it has made its way into the public record.
It sits, catalogued but undescribed, in that particular category of Irish field archaeology where the monument is acknowledged to exist and yet its story remains, for now, largely unwritten.
Enclosures of this kind are among the most common archaeological features in the Irish landscape, and among the most varied. The term covers everything from the circular earthen banks of early medieval ringforts, which served as farmsteads enclosed for security, to earlier prehistoric boundaries whose original function is harder to read. In Clare especially, where the land has not always rewarded deep ploughing, such features can survive with remarkable completeness beneath grass or scrub, their banks and ditches still legible to anyone who knows what to look for. Without further detail attached to this particular site, it is not possible to say which tradition Urlan More belongs to, how large the enclosure is, or whether any associated finds or features have been noted nearby. What is certain is that it was considered significant enough to be recorded formally, which in itself suggests something survives above ground.