The images, taken between 1966 and 1971 by Cambridge University, revealed a rectangular enclosure with a partially waterlogged defensive ditch, or fosse, sitting about 400 metres from the medieval tower house. This earthwork formed part of a larger complex that likely served the tower house, creating a network of defensive and agricultural features across the landscape.

The enclosure would have been a substantial feature in its day, with the water-filled fosse providing both defence and drainage for what was then relatively flat pastureland. The aerial surveys show it was part of a broader system of earthworks extending to the south and west, suggesting this was once a carefully managed medieval landscape centred on the tower house. These types of moated sites were common in medieval Ireland, often marking out areas for livestock, storage, or even secondary dwellings for those who served the main household.

Unfortunately, sometime after 1971, modern agricultural practices claimed this piece of history; the enclosure was levelled and returned to pasture. Today, visitors to the area west of the barn and stables at Barrettstown would find no trace of these earthworks at ground level. Only through those fortuitous aerial photographs from half a century ago do we know about this lost feature of Tipperary’s medieval past, a reminder of how much archaeological evidence lies hidden or destroyed beneath Ireland’s working farmland.