Enclosure, Kilmore, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Enclosures
In the townland of Kilmore in County Clare, an enclosure sits in the landscape, recorded and classified but not yet fully described.
The term enclosure covers a broad range of early Irish field monuments, from the circular earthen banks of a ringfort, which served as a defended farmstead during the early medieval period, to the drystone boundaries of a cashel or the ditched perimeters surrounding early ecclesiastical sites. Without knowing which type this is, the site occupies a quiet category of its own: officially acknowledged, archaeologically significant enough to be listed, yet still waiting for its story to be told in any public form.
Kilmore is a townland name found in several counties across Ireland, derived from the Irish Coill Mhór, meaning great wood, a reminder of the forested character much of this landscape once held. Clare itself is dense with early medieval settlement remains, and enclosures of various kinds dot its fields and hillsides in considerable numbers. Many were in continuous use as farmland boundaries long after their original purpose was forgotten, which is partly why so many survive at all, absorbed quietly into the working fabric of the countryside rather than recognised as ancient structures until surveyors began to document them systematically.