Moated site, Ballynagleragh, Co. Tipperary South
In the northwest corner of what was once a larger rectangular enclosure in Ballynagleragh, County Tipperary, sits a curious earthwork that has survived centuries of agricultural improvement.
Moated site, Ballynagleragh, Co. Tipperary South
The moated site occupies a slightly irregular rise in the gently rolling pastureland, its roughly rectangular raised platform measuring about 35 metres from northwest to southeast and 32 metres from southwest to northeast. What makes this monument particularly interesting is its defining feature: a broad, flat-topped earthen bank that once fully enclosed the site, creating what archaeologists recognise as a medieval moated site.
The earthwork’s bank remains most impressive along the northeast and southeast sides, where it still stands between 0.75 and 1.85 metres high on the exterior. With an overall width of six metres and a flat top spanning two metres across, these surviving sections give a good sense of the site’s original defensive character. The southwest and northwest portions of the bank have fared less well over time, now barely visible as slight rises in the ground. A six-metre-wide gap near the northeastern end of the southeast side likely marks where the original entrance stood, offering access to the level interior space that would have once held buildings associated with Anglo-Norman or later medieval settlement.
This monument has been recognised as nationally significant since 1956, when it received protected status under Ireland’s National Monuments Acts. Today, the interior remains clear and level, free from the overgrowth that often obscures such sites. While the larger rectangular enclosure it once anchored has been levelled for farming, this raised platform continues to mark the landscape as a reminder of medieval life in South Tipperary, when moated sites like this one served as fortified farmsteads for Anglo-Norman settlers and their descendants.





