Enclosure - large enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

'Approximately 200m south – south-east of the embanked enclosure at Ballingowan, this previously unrecorded site is located on a limestone outcrop or reef on the eastern outskirts of Tralee. The site is oval or egg shaped the narrower end to the west and measures 155m E-W and 104m N-S. Except for the eastern end, the perimeter of the site is marked by a modern stone wall, which sits on an earlier stone and earth bank. This wall also cuts the site from N-S at a point 40m from its eastern end. The original bank of the site can be seen beneath the wall particularly on the southern side where the wall has been constructed on the inner edge of the bank. The bank under the wall on the southern side is on average 4.5m wide and 0.35m high externally. The landowner informed me that much of the stone for the wall was in fact derived from the remains of the bank. At the eastern end the bank is clearly visible and similar to the bank of recorded enclosure KE029-158---- takes the form of an enhanced scarp. It measures 7.5m in maximum width and due to the natural slope/scarp of the ridge, is 1.2m on average, in external height and 0.45m in internal height. Immediately inside the bank the limestone bedrock is exposed in places and has clearly been quarried from a number of pits, possibly to construct the bank, which contains stone and earth. There is no evidence of a ditch. as are a number of depressions and holes which may have served as quarry ditches to provide material for the bank. This oval enclosure cuts an earlier site (RMP KE029-158----) at a point 50m from its western end.'

Description from ‘The Prehistoric Settlement of the Lee Valley, Tralee, Co. Kerry; A Landscape Perspective’ by Michael Connolly. PhD Thesis UCC 2008

Date of upload: 20 June 2012