Enclosure, Bottomstown, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Enclosures
Two circular earthworks sit in a low-lying marshy field near Bottomstown in County Limerick, separated by less than twenty metres, each ringed by its own fosse.
A fosse is simply a defensive ditch, typically dug from the earth used to raise the central platform, and here both monuments retain that raised form clearly enough to have attracted scholarly attention decades ago. What makes the pair genuinely odd is their setting: rather than occupying high ground, as many Irish enclosures do, these two are planted in wetland terrain, raised on what appears to be a natural platform, though one that may have been modified by human hand at some point in the past.
The most detailed early account comes from O'Kelly, writing in 1944, who recorded both monuments with some care. The northern enclosure is the larger of the two, a circular platform roughly 0.9 metres high with an overall diameter of around 36 metres, the whole thing surrounded by its fosse. Due south, at a distance of approximately 14 metres, the second enclosure mirrors the first in form but is noticeably smaller, with an overall diameter of about 27 metres. O'Kelly noted that the eastern part of the platform on which both sit is cut off by what he described as an ancient fence line, suggesting the monuments once existed within a broader organised landscape. Crucially, he could not identify entrances on either enclosure, which leaves open questions about how they were accessed and, by extension, what they were actually used for. The site is recorded in the Archaeological Survey of Ireland under the reference LI040-020, and aerial photographs taken in January 2003 are held in the ASI archive.
Bottomstown is in the flat, low-lying country of central Limerick, and the marshy character of the surrounding land means conditions underfoot can be difficult, particularly in wetter months. The enclosures are not signposted, and locating them requires cross-referencing the National Monuments Service mapping with the local field boundaries. The aerial photographs in the ASI archive, taken in early 2003, give the clearest sense of how both platforms sit in relation to each other and to the wider platform edge. Visitors with an interest in early Irish field monuments will find the pairing itself the most telling detail, since two enclosures positioned so deliberately close together, in a location that required deliberate effort to occupy, suggest an arrangement that was anything but accidental.