Structure, Brandonhill, Co. Kilkenny
Co. Kilkenny |
Utility Structures
On the southern slopes of Brandon Hill in County Kilkenny, tucked into a steep gradient above the source of the Clodiagh River, sits a small structure that is easy to miss and harder to categorise.
Measuring just six metres by three, it is sub-rectangular in plan, partly cut into the hillside and partly built up from it, the kind of construction where the landscape does half the work. A gap in the walling on the south-western side suggests an original entrance, though nothing about the structure announces its age or purpose with any confidence.
The site was identified by Séamus Ó Murchú in 2016, and its position is quietly specific: roughly 85 metres north-east of the source of the Clodiagh, a river that eventually finds its way into the Nore. The south-facing aspect would have offered shelter and warmth, practical considerations that recur across centuries of upland settlement and agricultural activity in Ireland. A separate enclosure sits approximately 45 metres to the north, hinting that this part of the hillside may once have supported more activity than the present quiet suggests. Whether the two features are related in date or function remains an open question.