First recorded on the 1839 Ordnance Survey map, this moated site at Ballyvoodrane consists of a raised rectangular platform measuring approximately 45 by 41 metres, surrounded by a distinctive water-filled ditch. The site sits on a gentle east-facing slope, its corners marked by low earthen banks that rise about 60 centimetres above the interior ground level.

What makes this site particularly interesting is its well-preserved moat system, which still encircles the entire enclosure despite centuries of neglect. The moat itself is quite substantial; on the northern side, for example, it measures six metres wide with a flat bottom, dropping to a depth of 1.5 metres on the inner edge and one metre on the outer. These defensive ditches would have originally been filled with water, creating both a physical and psychological barrier between the enclosed space and the outside world. The raised corners of the platform, each reinforced with banks about four metres wide, suggest careful engineering designed to maintain the structure’s integrity over time.

Though now overgrown and somewhat forgotten, this moated site represents a fascinating piece of medieval Irish history. Such enclosed farmsteads were typically built between the 13th and 14th centuries by Anglo-Norman settlers or wealthy Irish families, serving as fortified homesteads in an often uncertain political landscape. The site’s appearance on early Ordnance Survey maps, where it measured roughly 60 by 50 metres in 1839 and had expanded to about 65 metres square by 1924, hints at how these monuments were perceived and recorded differently as surveying techniques evolved. Today, while the wooden buildings that once stood within the enclosure have long since vanished, the earthworks themselves remain as a testament to medieval life in rural Ireland.