Moated site, Ballygillane, Co. Limerick

Located 55 metres west of the Ballynamoloogh townland boundary and 310 metres southwest of Gotoon fort, this rectangular earthwork wasn't even considered an antiquity when first mapped in 1840. By 1897, however, Ordnance Survey cartographers had recognised its significance, carefully documenting a structure measuring roughly 40 by 42 metres, enclosed by banks and a water-filled fosse.

The site caught the attention of noted archaeologist Thomas Johnson Westropp during his early 20th-century surveys of Limerick's ancient monuments. Writing in 1916, he described what he termed a 'straight-sided fort' with remarkably sharp corners; an unusual feature that suggested the original stone facing had been robbed out in relatively recent times. His meticulous measurements revealed an irregular rectangle with sides ranging from 32 to 46.6 metres, defended by a substantial bank standing 2.4 metres high and 3.6 metres thick. The eastern entrance led into the enclosure, whilst the defensive fosse varied dramatically in preservation around the perimeter: deep and water-filled to the southeast, nearly obliterated to the north where yellow flag irises marked its course, and still measuring 1.5 metres deep to the west.

Today, modern satellite imagery shows the monument survives as a tree-lined rectangular enclosure, its banks still clearly visible despite being bisected by later field boundaries and drainage ditches. The northern section has been cut through by a post-1700 field boundary running north to south, whilst a drain intersects the southern edge. Despite these later intrusions, the essential form of this medieval earthwork remains intact; a testament to the defensive architecture that once dotted the Irish landscape, protecting farmsteads and small settlements during turbulent times.