Though you wouldn’t know it from walking the fields today, this spot once housed a rectangular enclosure that appeared on the Ordnance Survey’s 6-inch map from 1842. The structure has since vanished without a trace, leaving only historical records to mark its existence.

This moated site represents one of many medieval earthworks scattered across the Irish countryside, typically dating from the 13th to 15th centuries. These defensive structures, often built by Anglo-Norman settlers or wealthy Irish families, consisted of rectangular platforms surrounded by water-filled ditches. The moats served both as protection and as a status symbol, marking the residence of someone with sufficient resources to construct and maintain such elaborate earthworks.

The disappearance of Garryndruig’s enclosure tells a familiar story in Irish archaeology; centuries of agricultural activity have gradually erased many medieval features from the landscape. What once stood as a prominent defensive structure has been absorbed back into the working farmland, its stones perhaps repurposed for field walls, its earthen banks levelled for easier cultivation. The site remains catalogued in the Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, serving as a reminder that even the most unremarkable fields can harbour significant historical remains.