Field boundary, Mangerton, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Field boundary, Mangerton, Co. Kerry

On the south-west-facing slope of Mangerton Mountain in County Kerry, a network of low stone walls lies half-swallowed by bog, marking the outline of fields that no longer exist.

The walls themselves are modest, roughly 0.7 metres thick and only about 0.4 metres high where they still protrude above the peat, yet they extend across an area of approximately 170 metres by 150 metres. What makes this particular scatter of stonework quietly arresting is not its scale but its persistence: these are relict field boundaries, the skeletal remains of a managed agricultural landscape that the bog has spent centuries trying to consume.

The network consists of two principal sections. The northern stretch runs on a north-east to south-west axis for around 55 metres before meeting the southern section, which continues intermittently on a north-west to south-east axis. Together they sit to the north and west of a separate enclosure, suggesting that this hillside was once organised into a coherent pattern of land use rather than being the open rough pasture it appears today. Close by, some 34 metres north of the northern wall section, lies what may be a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site typically identified by a horseshoe-shaped mound of fire-cracked stone, often associated with the Bronze Age. The possible presence of one here, near the field system, hints at a landscape with a long and layered history of human activity, though the precise relationship between the cooking site and the walls has not been established.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Field boundary, Mangerton, Co. Kerry. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement