Enclosure, Duntryleague, Co. Limerick

Co. Limerick |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Duntryleague, Co. Limerick

In a field of reclaimed pasture outside Duntryleague in County Limerick, a D-shaped enclosure lies almost entirely out of sight.

There is no mound to speak of, no obvious earthwork to catch the eye from a lane or a gate. The only reliable way to see it at all is from above, and even then you need to know where to look and what the crop is doing that day.

The enclosure was identified not by a surveyor on the ground but by Hugh Carey, who spotted it as a cropmark while examining a Bing aerial photograph on 14 January 2014. A cropmark forms when buried features, walls, ditches, or banks, affect the moisture and nutrient content of the soil above them, causing the overlying vegetation to grow or ripen at a slightly different rate. The result, invisible at ground level, can show up strikingly from altitude as a pattern of contrasting colour or texture across a field. At Duntryleague, that pattern resolves into a roughly D-shaped form, approximately 29 metres across on its NW-SE axis and 18 metres on its NE-SW axis, with a bank traceable from the south-east around through south and west to the north-west. The western side has been cut through by a relic field boundary running east to west, and the eastern edge is intersected by a linear cropmark running north to south, which may represent a drainage channel associated with the land reclamation that reshaped this part of the townland. The monument does not appear on the Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, placing its formal recognition firmly in the modern era, despite the enclosure itself almost certainly being considerably older. Two further earthworks sit nearby within the same field system, one roughly 40 metres to the north-west and another about 70 metres to the south-east. A faint circular cropmark was also noted on a Google Earth image dated 18 November 2018, hinting at further complexity beneath the surface.

Because the monument is a cropmark rather than a visible earthwork, there is little to see during a ground-level visit unless conditions are just right. The enclosure sits within reclaimed agricultural land, and access would require landowner permission. Those interested in cropmark archaeology may find it more rewarding to explore the satellite and aerial imagery available through Google Earth, where the D-shape and its surrounding linear features can be traced with some patience. The site is catalogued within the Record of Monuments and Places for County Limerick, and the compiled record, drawing on Digital Globe orthoimages from 2011 to 2013 alongside later Google Earth captures, was formally uploaded in September 2021.

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, Duntryleague, Co. Limerick. 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