This ancient site, likely a moated enclosure, sits about 140 metres northwest of another known enclosure in the area. Despite its proximity to these landmarks, the earthwork never appeared on any of the Ordnance Survey Ireland’s historical maps, suggesting it had already faded from local memory by the time systematic surveying began.

The site’s rediscovery came about through a bit of archaeological detective work in 1984, when aerial photographs taken for the Bórd Gáis Éireann Curraleigh West to Limerick gas pipeline revealed a linear cropmark running north to south. Just to the east of this mark, the potential archaeological site was identified. The rectangular shape becomes particularly visible in certain conditions; cropmarks appear when buried features affect plant growth above them, creating patterns only visible from above. Later aerial photography from 2003, along with Digital Globe orthoimages from 2011 to 2013 and Google Earth imagery, confirmed the presence of this rectangular earthwork, though a post-1700 field boundary now cuts across its southeastern corner.

Moated sites like this one at Mitchelstowndown East were typically constructed during the Anglo-Norman period in Ireland, serving as defended farmsteads for wealthy landowners. The rectangular shape and possible moat would have provided both status and security in medieval Limerick’s contested landscape. Archaeological features like this remind us that beneath Ireland’s pastoral fields lie centuries of settlement patterns, conflicts, and everyday life that shaped the countryside we see today.