The moated site at Clones Middle first appeared on the 1839 Ordnance Survey map as a circular embanked enclosure measuring about 40 metres across. By the time cartographers returned in 1940, they recorded it quite differently; as a rectangular feature with distinct hachure marks indicating slopes or embankments, surrounded by a moat. They labelled it rather mysteriously as a ‘Tumulus’, though its true nature remained unclear.

Today, what visitors find is a small, densely overgrown rectangular platform measuring just 15 metres from northeast to southwest and 10 metres from northwest to southeast. The platform sits within a substantial moat that’s 5 metres wide at the top and drops to a depth of about 1.5 metres. These defensive water features were typical of medieval moated sites, which wealthy landowners built across Ireland between the 13th and 17th centuries. They served as fortified homesteads, offering protection whilst demonstrating status and control over the surrounding agricultural land.

The discrepancy between the circular feature shown in 1839 and the rectangular one documented a century later raises intriguing questions. Did the early surveyors misinterpret what they saw, or has the site changed dramatically over time? The dense vegetation that now cloaks the platform makes investigation challenging, but the surviving earthworks hint at centuries of human occupation and modification in this quiet corner of Wexford.