Enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

Ulligadrevil/Ulaidh an Draghbháil: This site consists of an ovate enclosure within which are the possible remains of hut sites and graves. In the same field, to W of the enclosure, are numerous mounds and banks some of which may also define hut-sites. The remains of another hut [KE042-046----] are situated in the field to N, at a distance of about 100m from the enclosure. It is difficult to classify this site from a surface inspection alone but it may have been a ringfort which was later re-used as a calluragh burial ground.
The enclosure, measuring 34m N-S x 29m E-W internally, is defined by a low, grass-grown stony bank c. 0.8m high and c. 3m wide. This bank has been badly damaged along the N and NE sectors where a field wall skirts the enclosure.
There is a 1.2m wide entrance gap at SW, defined on either side by stones on edge and by prostrate stones which may formerly have stood upright. There is a 2nd possible entrance feature at SE, defined by an unusual arrangement of 4 upright stones, .7 to 1.2m high, with a .35m high stone blocking the entrance gap.
The stony banks occupying the E part of the interior may represent the remains of at least 1 hut-site. It is also possible that some of the stones on edge in this area, .13 to .55m high, are the remains of slab-lined graves. The presence of graves in the interior is also suggested by the name of the site, Ulaidh: tomb; Draghbhail: English dry-wall. The interior is said to have been under cultivation about 50 years ago (local information) and other features may have been destroyed at that time.
Numerous stony mounds and banks and prostrate stones and stones on edge occupy the area directly W of the enclosure. Some of these do not form any recognisable pattern. However, abutting the exterior of the enclosure bank, directly S of the SW entrance, is what appears to be the remains of a rectangular house measuring c. 7.7 x 2.2m internally, its walls reduced to low stony banks with some stones set on edge perhaps representing the wall faces. The north-westernmost mound also seems to represent the remains of a hut, similar to that in the field to N. The mound is composed of a mixture of stones and earth and measures c. 24m x 23m in maximum extent. The depressed interior measures 6.3m x 7m. There is a possible entrance gap at N but this does not cut through the lower portion of the mound.
The hut site in the field to N of the enclosure is roughly circular in outline, measuring 5.95m in diameter internally, and its wall is for the most part represented by a stone and earth bank with sections of the outer wall face visible to a maximum height of .4m. Ill-defined entrance gap at W. Abutting the N side of the hut is a small sub-rectangular yard.

The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 1552. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 5 August 2013