Visible only from above as cropmarks in aerial photographs, the ghostly outline of what appears to be a moated site emerges when conditions are just right. The aerial photograph, captured by the Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photography in September 2016, reveals a fosse or defensive ditch enclosing a large rectangular area measuring approximately 80 metres from northeast to southwest and 40 metres from northwest to southeast.

The enclosure’s most intriguing feature is its entrance on the southeastern side, suggesting this was once a carefully planned defensive structure. Moated sites like this one were typically built between the 13th and 14th centuries, often serving as fortified farmsteads for Anglo-Norman settlers or prosperous Irish families. The water-filled ditch would have provided both defence and a statement of status, whilst the rectangular platform inside would have held timber or stone buildings; perhaps a hall, living quarters, and agricultural structures.

What makes this site particularly interesting is the evidence of a possible field system immediately to the southeast, hinting at the agricultural landscape that once supported the inhabitants. Though nothing remains visible at ground level today, these cropmarks tell a story of medieval life in Kildare, where security, agriculture, and social hierarchy shaped the landscape in ways that still whisper to us through the patterns in modern fields.