Moat, Cloghanughera, Co. Cork
In the quiet pastureland of Cloghanughera, County Cork, the remnants of a medieval moat tell a story spanning centuries.
Moat, Cloghanughera, Co. Cork
This square enclosure, measuring roughly 28 metres on each side, first appeared on the 1842 Ordnance Survey map as a hachured feature; a cartographic technique used to show raised earthworks. By the time the OS revisited the site in 1905 and 1936, the central platform had contracted to about 20 metres square, though the maps now revealed an external fosse, or defensive ditch, running along the southern, western, and northern sides of the structure.
Today, visitors to the site will find it bisected by a north-south field boundary, with gardens from neighbouring houses occupying the eastern portion. The western half still bears subtle traces of its past; slight depressions mark where the defensive ditches once ran along the south and west, with the western depression continuing northward to meet the modern field boundary. These gentle undulations in the landscape are all that remain visible of what was once a formidable medieval fortification.
Local memory adds another layer to the site’s history, with residents recalling that the earthworks were levelled during the 1960s. Perhaps most intriguingly, tradition holds that the water-filled ‘dyke’ surrounding the moat found a second life in more recent centuries, repurposed for processing flax; a reminder that these ancient sites often served the practical needs of successive generations long after their original defensive purpose had faded.