Enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

In a housing scheme known as Adare Villas, 170m to SE of Adare Demesne townland boundary and 580m to W of the River Maigue, which also marks a boundary with Mountwilliam townland. Not depicted on OS historic mapping. Monument identified during as an enclosure during monitoring of topsoil stripping for a holiday home development on the lands of Adare Manor (McLeod and Kavanagh 2005, 1). Monument excavated (Licence No. 05E0169) by Ross McLeod and John Kavanagh in 2005 and described as a large semicircular-shaped area (30m N-S; 20m E-W) defined by a ditch (max. D 1.76m). Human skeletal remains, which were placed with crossed hands, were recovered from the base of the ditch and indicate an Early Christian date for the body and feature. There were no indicators for habitation within the interior, although a small metalworking pit, several anomalous pits and later field drains (LI021-182001-) lie 145m to S. A cluster of small cremation pits (LI021-082002-) was also recovered 240m to SE.
In general, the area of the excavation and surrounding field had been under intensive agricultural activity for some time, reflected by the regular plough marks identified across the exposed surface of the field. Also hand-excavated field drains along with modern machine-cut examples were located across the site, demonstrating a continual process of land improvement.

See attached Google Earth orthoimages.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and

References

McLeod, R. and Kavanagh, J. 2005 Archaeological excavation report at Adare Manor, Boulabally Td, Co. Limerick. Unpublished report (Licence No. 05E0169), submitted by National Archaeological Services Ltd. to the National Monuments Service, Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government.