Enclosure, Coolcurtoga, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Coolcurtoga, Co. Kerry

On a west-facing slope in Coolcurtoga, County Kerry, a small rectangular enclosure sits tucked into a sheltered hollow among rough hill pasture.

What makes it quietly arresting is not its size, which is modest, roughly four metres east to west and under three metres north to south, but the way it was built. Three sides are formed from a collapsed drystone wall, a construction technique relying entirely on carefully stacked stones without mortar, while the fourth side dispenses with masonry altogether and simply uses a natural rock outcrop as its eastern boundary. The enclosure is just large enough to shelter a person or a small animal, and its single narrow entrance, only about sixty centimetres wide, faces north.

Set into the face of the rock outcrop at the eastern side is a lintelled recess, a small rectangular niche with a flat stone laid across its top as a roof, measuring roughly eighty-five centimetres wide, fifty centimetres high, and fifty centimetres deep. Niches like this, built into or against rock faces within enclosures, sometimes served as sheltered storage for tools, food, or devotional objects, though without further excavation or documentary evidence it is difficult to say with certainty what purpose this one served. The incorporation of the natural outcrop as a structural wall is a practical economy seen occasionally in vernacular building across Ireland, where the landscape itself was treated as a ready-made building material. The collapsed state of the drystone walls suggests long abandonment, and the hollow in which it sits, sheltered from prevailing winds, hints at a deliberate choice of location by whoever originally built here.

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, Coolcurtoga, 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: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement