A trapezoidal enclosure, measuring roughly 46 metres northwest to southeast and 43 metres northeast to southwest, appears as a ghostly outline in aerial photographs, particularly visible in images captured during the dry summer of June 2018. This feature, possibly representing an ancient moated site, sits approximately 495 metres west of the known medieval Ardscull Moat, suggesting this area held strategic or settlement importance across multiple periods of Irish history.

The enclosure shares its field with an extensive network of cropmarks that tell a complex story of land use through the centuries. A possible medieval roadway cuts through the southern portion of the field, its path interrupted by a remarkably straight and geometric field system. The linear precision of these field boundaries, and the way they slice across the older road, hints at agricultural reorganisation that likely occurred after 1700, when Irish landowners began implementing more systematic farming methods inspired by the Agricultural Revolution.

These cropmarks offer a window into Ireland’s layered past, where medieval defensive structures, ancient roadways, and post-medieval field systems overlap like pages in a palimpsest. While the trapezoidal enclosure’s exact date and purpose remain uncertain, its proximity to the known medieval site at Ardscull suggests it may have served a similar defensive or high-status residential function. The faint traces visible from above serve as a reminder that Ireland’s archaeological heritage often lies just beneath our feet, waiting for the right conditions; drought, particular crops, or aerial photography angles; to reveal secrets that have been hiding in plain sight for centuries.