Field system, Curramore, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Field system, Curramore, Co. Cork

On a slope above the Coomhola river valley in West Cork, the ground still holds the outline of an entire farming landscape, one that was gradually swallowed by bog and mountain pasture and has been slowly re-emerging ever since.

Spread across roughly 7,000 square metres, the complex at Curramore comprises collapsed dry-stone walls, a hut site, stone settings, and a section of wall that predates the bog growth around it, meaning people were dividing and working this land before the peat even began to form.

The field system is substantial enough to read as a coherent whole even in its ruined state. In the central section, two gently curving parallel walls run roughly north to south for about 190 metres, set 20 metres apart, with the remains of cross walls connecting them to create sub-rectangular enclosures approximately 20 by 40 metres. The walls themselves were built in an organised style: upright stones placed at intervals of two and a half to three metres, with smaller stones packed in between, reaching about 0.7 metres in height. To the north, a further series of walls arranged at right angles covers an area of around 112 metres north to south and 70 metres east to west, suggesting that the agricultural activity here was neither casual nor short-lived. At the southern end of the complex, a small cist-like structure sits on top of a hillock, defined on three sides by upright slabs, with small stones arranged along the interior. A cist is typically a stone-lined box, most often associated with burial, and its presence within a field system raises questions that the landscape alone cannot answer. Elsewhere in the complex, a rough rectangular arrangement of prostrate stones once had a flagstone covering, which local tradition holds was removed for road works at some point, leaving the feature open to the elements and speculation in equal measure. Attached to the northern edge of the field system, an arc of embedded stones forms the western wall of a small circular hut, about four metres in diameter, its modest scale suggesting a shelter rather than a permanent dwelling.

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