First recorded on the 1841 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, this rectangular enclosure measures roughly 60 metres from northeast to southwest and 40 metres from east to west. The site represents one of many such defensive homesteads that once dotted the Irish landscape, typically dating from the 13th to 15th centuries when Anglo-Norman settlers established fortified farmsteads across the country.

Moated sites like this one served as protected rural dwellings for prosperous farmers and minor gentry during the medieval period. The moat itself, which would have been water-filled, provided both defence and drainage whilst also marking social status; these weren’t castles, but they were certainly a step up from ordinary farmhouses. The rectangular platform within would have supported timber-framed buildings, including the main dwelling house, agricultural structures, and perhaps a small chapel.

Today, no visible traces remain above ground at Turfarney, with centuries of agriculture having levelled the earthworks that once defined this medieval homestead. The site’s existence is preserved primarily through historical mapping and archaeological records, documented in the Archaeological Inventory of County Laois published in 1995. Like many of Ireland’s medieval archaeological sites, Turfarney offers a glimpse into a landscape once populated by hundreds of similar fortified farmsteads, most of which have vanished completely from view, surviving only in place names, old maps, and the careful work of archaeologists.