Moated site, Modreeny, Co. Tipperary North
The remains of a medieval moated site once stood in the flat pastures of Modreeny in County Tipperary, though you won't find any trace of it today.
Moated site, Modreeny, Co. Tipperary North
Old Ordnance Survey maps from the early 20th century show it as a distinctive lozenge-shaped enclosure, with what appears to have been a circular tree-ring feature at its centre. These moated sites were typically built by Anglo-Norman settlers and wealthy Irish families between the 13th and 15th centuries, serving as defended farmsteads surrounded by water-filled ditches.
The site sat quietly in the gently rolling countryside of North Tipperary for centuries, its earthworks gradually softening into the landscape as nature reclaimed the banks and ditches. By the time archaeologists came to document it properly, the enclosure had already become difficult to spot at ground level, its outline only really visible from aerial photographs or careful survey work.
Unfortunately, the moated site met its end during a land reclamation project in the late 1950s, when farmers across Ireland were modernising their holdings and creating larger, more productive fields. The earthworks were likely levelled and the ditches filled in, erasing this piece of medieval heritage from the landscape. Today, only the historical records and old maps remain to tell us that this defensive farmstead once stood watch over the Modreeny countryside, a reminder of how much archaeological evidence has been lost to agricultural improvement over the decades.





