This moated site, measuring roughly 50 metres northwest to southeast and 40 metres northeast to southwest, appears on historical maps from 1839 as an embanked enclosure. While modern visitors walking through the pasture fields won’t spot any obvious traces at ground level, the site reveals itself dramatically from above; aerial photographs captured by Cambridge University show a distinctive square cropmark approximately 38 metres on each side.

The enclosure sits on a gentle south-facing slope, a position that would have been carefully chosen by its medieval builders. Moated sites like this one were typically constructed between the 13th and 14th centuries, serving as fortified homesteads for Anglo-Norman settlers or prosperous Irish families. The moat, which would have been water-filled, provided both defensive capabilities and a statement of status in medieval society. These sites often housed timber-framed buildings within their protective boundaries, though any above-ground structures have long since vanished.

The site’s appearance on the 1839 Ordnance Survey map but absence from modern ground-level observation illustrates how agricultural practices and time gradually smooth away historical features. Yet beneath the surface, the old ditches and banks remain, their different soil composition affecting crop growth patterns that become visible during dry spells or particular growing conditions. This ghostly square, captured in aerial photograph BDQ 85, serves as a reminder that Ireland’s medieval landscape lies just beneath the modern fields, waiting to tell its stories to those who know how to look.