Moated site, Ballynamona, Co. Limerick
In the reclaimed pastures of Ballynamona, County Limerick, lies a subtle but intriguing medieval earthwork that reveals itself most clearly from above.
Moated site, Ballynamona, Co. Limerick
This sub-rectangular moated site, measuring approximately 37 metres north to south and 43 metres east to west, is defined by a wide fosse that once would have provided both drainage and defence for whatever structure stood within. Though not marked on the old Ordnance Survey 6-inch maps, the site was first identified as a cropmark in aerial photographs taken by Bórd Gáis Éireann during their Curraleigh West to Limerick gas pipeline survey in November 1984.
The moated site sits within a broader archaeological landscape, with two other enclosures located just 65 metres to the west and 50 metres to the east. These features suggest a pattern of medieval settlement and land use that once characterised this part of Limerick. The site remains visible on modern satellite imagery, including Digital Globe orthoimages from 2011-13 and Google Earth photographs, where the outline of the fosse appears as a darker mark against the surrounding pasture, particularly during dry conditions when crop stress reveals buried features.
Recent Google Earth imagery from November 2018 has also captured cultivation ridges running northeast to southwest immediately north of the moated site. These ridges, likely dating from the post-medieval period, represent the agricultural practices that followed the site’s abandonment and show how the landscape continued to be worked long after the original defensive structure fell out of use. Today, this quietly significant site serves as a reminder of the medieval families who once shaped and defended these lands, their presence now traced only through subtle marks in the earth visible from the sky.





