Fort, Clooncullen, Co. Longford

Co. Longford |

Enclosures

Fort, Clooncullen, Co. Longford

A low, barely perceptible rise in a Longford pasture field conceals the remains of an enclosure that cartographers in 1837 felt confident enough to label simply as "Fort" on the first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map.

That designation, used for ringforts and similar earthworks, points to a structure of early medieval origin, most likely the enclosed farmstead of a farming family of some local standing. What survives today is a raised subrectangular platform, measuring roughly 35.5 metres on its northeast to southwest axis and 33 metres across, sitting at the southeastern edge of a gentle ridge amid ordinary grazing land.

The enclosure is defined differently on each side, which gives it a quietly irregular character. On the northwest, a low bank of earth and stone survives, around 2.2 metres wide and just half a metre high. On the remaining three sides, the platform is bounded not by a built-up bank but by a natural or cut scarp, a slope or edge cut into the ground, rising between 0.8 and 1.1 metres. Two gaps punctuate the perimeter: one at the southern end of the southeast side, roughly 4 metres wide, and another at the western end of the northwest side, 3 metres wide. These may represent original entrances, though later disturbance cannot be ruled out. A 1976 field report noted the presence of an external fosse, the shallow ditch that would once have surrounded the enclosure and reinforced its boundary, but no trace of it can now be identified on the ground.

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Pete F
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