Enclosure, Knockavoarheen, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Knockavoarheen, Co. Clare

High on a south-east-facing slope at Knockavoarheen in County Clare, a circular earthwork sits in open pasture with wide views sweeping from north-east to south-west.

What makes it quietly puzzling is not what it is, but what it might once have been. The structure is so heavily damaged that even its basic identity is uncertain; it could be a ring-barrow, a type of burial monument in which a low mound is enclosed by a circular ditch and outer bank, common in Ireland from the Bronze Age onwards, or it could be something else entirely. That ambiguity is part of what makes it worth pausing over.

What remains measures roughly 20 metres in diameter, defined by a fosse, which is simply a ditch, approximately one metre wide at its base and 0.3 metres deep, accompanied by an outer bank around 2.6 metres wide. These features survive only along the south-east to south-west arc of the circuit. On the eastern side the enclosing elements have been cut away or worn back to a jagged steep edge standing at most one metre high, and two spoil heaps at the northern end suggest at least some deliberate disturbance at some point. The truncation is severe enough that the original form of the monument is difficult to reconstruct with any confidence. About 145 metres to the west-south-west, a rath, that is a roughly circular embanked farmstead of early medieval date, sits in the same landscape, a reminder that this hillside has been occupied and worked across very different periods.

The site is in pasture, and the surviving earthwork, reduced as it is, remains visible on the ground. The south-eastern arc, where the fosse and bank are best preserved, offers the clearest sense of the original enclosure's outline, though the eye has to do considerable work to reconstruct the full circuit from what little is left.

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, Knockavoarheen, Co. Clare. 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