Enclosure, Capparoe, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Capparoe, Co. Kerry

On the western flank of Brassel Mountain in County Kerry, a low stone wall traces a near-circle across a steep, south-facing slope, enclosing a roughly oval patch of rough mountainous pasture.

It does not appear on Ordnance Survey maps, and there is nothing to announce it to anyone passing through the landscape. The enclosure measures approximately 25 metres north to south and just over 21 metres east to west, its boundary wall built to a width of about 1.9 metres and surviving to a modest height of 65 centimetres in places, the kind of modest, unspectacular stonework that the untrained eye might easily read as a collapsed field boundary and nothing more.

That possibility is actually part of what makes the site interesting. The field boundaries in the immediate vicinity share a very similar character and construction to the enclosure wall itself, and it may well be that this subcircular form was once part of a broader system of land division rather than a discrete, purpose-built enclosure. Enclosures of this general type on the Iveragh Peninsula have been associated with early agricultural or settlement activity, and the form, a rough circle or oval defined by a stone wall, echoes that of cashels and other early medieval enclosures found across Munster, though no date or function has been firmly assigned to this particular example. Its documentation comes from the 1996 archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan, which catalogued numerous such features across south Kerry, many of them similarly absent from standard mapping.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Enclosure, Capparoe, Co. Kerry. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 50 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement