The subrectangular enclosure appears only as a cropmark from above; darker or lighter patches in the vegetation that trace the boundaries of long-buried defensive ditches. There’s nothing to see at ground level today, but these subtle marks in the landscape tell the story of a medieval settlement that once stood here.

Moated sites like this one were a common feature of the Irish landscape during the Anglo-Norman period, typically dating from the 13th to 14th centuries. These fortified farmsteads consisted of a rectangular platform surrounded by a water-filled ditch, which served both defensive and drainage purposes. The moat would have been crossed by a simple wooden bridge, leading to a timber hall or stone building where a farming family of some local importance would have lived, along with their livestock and stores.

The fact that this site only survives as a cropmark is quite typical; many of Ireland’s medieval earthworks have been levelled by centuries of agricultural activity. The ditches, having been dug deeper into the subsoil, retain more moisture than the surrounding ground, causing crops above them to grow differently and revealing the site’s footprint when viewed from above. This particular example was first properly documented in the Archaeological Inventory of County Laois in 1995, though locals may well have known about the “fairy fort” or unusual field for generations before aerial photography made its true nature clear.