The moated site at Newtowncorduff was first spotted from aerial photographs taken in 1972, revealing what ground-level observation might easily miss: a roughly rectangular raised platform measuring about 45 metres north to south and 35 metres east to west, standing between one and 1.3 metres above the surrounding land. The platform is encircled by a fosse, a defensive ditch roughly 7.5 metres wide and nearly half a metre deep, with drainage channels running from its eastern, northeastern, northwestern and southwestern sections.

To reach this intriguing site today, visitors must ford the Corduff river and pass through a field entrance marked by two stone piers, much as people would have done centuries ago. The site appeared on 19th century lease maps under the rather whimsical name of the ‘Fancy field’, though its history runs much deeper than Victorian nomenclature might suggest. According to the current landowner, local tradition holds that this field marks the location of the lost ‘town’ of Newtown Corduff, a settlement that has long since vanished from the landscape but left its earthwork signature behind.

These moated sites, common throughout the Irish countryside, typically date from the Anglo-Norman period and served as fortified homesteads for colonising families. The raised platform would have supported timber buildings, whilst the surrounding water-filled ditch provided both defence and drainage in Ireland’s damp climate. Though the buildings have long disappeared and the moat has dried, the earthworks at Newtowncorduff remain remarkably well preserved, offering a tangible connection to the medieval communities that once shaped this corner of County Dublin.