Hilltop enclosure, Knocknasnaa, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Enclosures
At Knocknasnaa in County Limerick, there is a hillfort that no longer exists above ground, yet continues to be recorded and studied.
The enclosure, which once measured roughly 70 metres in diameter and covered a site footprint of approximately 0.5 hectares, has been completely levelled, leaving the surrounding pasture with no visible trace of what once occupied the crest of the ridge. It is, in a quiet way, a place defined entirely by its absence.
Historic maps tell the fuller story. The first edition Ordnance Survey mapping provides the earliest depiction of the monument, and a more detailed earthwork survey appeared in the second edition. By the time a 1923 OS six-inch map was produced, the enclosure was still recorded as an embanked circular form. Aerial photographs taken before 1995 show the enclosing elements more clearly, including a complete outer rampart running the full circuit and a concentric inner bank, making this what archaeologists describe as a bivallate enclosure, meaning one defended by two separate lines of bank or rampart, on the western side at least. The eastern half of the inner enclosing element is not apparent in either the aerial photographs or the historic mapping, suggesting it may never have been completed, or that it was lost earlier than the rest. The Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland notes the site's commanding position at the interchange of two valleys running north-south and east-west, a location typical of hillforts, which are generally understood as enclosed settlements or places of assembly occupying elevated ground. No evidence of internal activity has been recorded on the surface, and there are no obvious entrance features visible in any of the surviving sources.
The site sits in pasture on the crest of a broad east-west rise, with a coniferous plantation covering the ground immediately to the north. Because the monument has been completely levelled, a visit offers little in the way of earthworks to read on foot, though the elevated position and the wide view across the converging valleys remain. Anyone with an interest in landscape archaeology might find more reward in studying the pre-1995 aerial photographs and the OS mapping beforehand, using them to mentally reconstruct what the ridge once held.