The earthwork at Cloncannon appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map from 1840 as a large rectangular enclosure, though today only its eastern corner survives beneath a layer of dumped topsoil. The site sits on the flat floodplains that characterise this part of North Tipperary, a strategic location that would have provided both defensive advantages and access to water.

Historical records from the Civil Survey of 1654;6 provide tantalising clues about what once stood here. The survey mentions ‘a castle wanting repaire & a mill seate upon a brooke called Collatrom’, located on the boundary between two baronies. The description closely matches the location of this moated site, suggesting the earthwork may have been associated with a fortified residence that had already fallen into disrepair by the mid;17th century. The reference to a mill seat indicates the site’s economic importance, as water mills were valuable assets in medieval and early modern Ireland.

Moated sites like Cloncannon were typically constructed between the 13th and 14th centuries by Anglo;Norman colonists and wealthy Irish families. These defensive earthworks consisted of a rectangular platform surrounded by a water;filled ditch, often supporting a timber hall or stone tower house. While much of Cloncannon’s original structure has been lost to time and agricultural activity, its surviving eastern corner serves as an important archaeological marker of medieval settlement patterns in North Tipperary.