Enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

On rocky pasture on Ardaghlooda, a rocky ridge overlooking Lough Gur, 110m W of the lake within a dense concentration of archaeological monuments including standings stones (LI032-009/010002-). One of three enclosures on the hill (LI032-011001/002-/004-), enclosure (LI032-011002-) located on the summit 95m to NNE, enclosure (LI032-011004-) located 15m to N. The great stone circle at Grange (LI032-004001-) is located 350m to SW. The site pre-dates a later historic field system (LI032-011003-) which overlies the enclosures (LI032-011001-/002/004-). A historic road (LI032-010001-) known as 'Cladh na Leac' skirts around the W side of the hill 100m from the enclosure.
The enclosure is not depicted on the 1840 ed. OSi 6-inch, 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch or on the Cassini OSi 6-inch maps. It is faintly visible on OSi orthoimage taken 2005-12 and on the Digital Globe orthoimage taken 2011-2013. Grogan (1989, Vol. 2, 9, Vol. 3, Figs. 4-5) describes the site as a ‘habitation enclosure...... the site is circular and is 25m in maximum diameter’. The site is visible on Google Earth orthoimage taken 16/03/2016 and 25/03/2017 and survives as a circular enclosure (ext. diam. 19m N-S; 17.5m E-W) bisected by a later E-W field boundary that forms part of relic field system (LI032-011003-). The enclosure is defined by a low bank.

See attached Google Earth orthoimages

Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan

Date of upload: 3 November 2020

References

Grogan, E. 1989 The Early Prehistory of the Lough Gur Region: Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement patterns in North Munster, south of the River Shannon, 3 Vols. Doctoral PhD Thesis submitted to the Dept. of Archaeology, University College Dublin.