Enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, on a low rise in undulating terrain, with good but not extensive views.
A rectangular enclosure bordered at SW by a NW−SE road is shown on the 1838 OS 6-inch map; a hachured roughly D-shaped area, bordered on the straight side at SW by the road, is shown on the 1916 edition.
The enclosure was visited by Knox (1911, 337) who described this as a slightly raised ‘D-shaped earthwork’ defined by a slight bank, enclosed externally by a fosse with a ‘trivial bank on the outside’.
A D-shaped area (30.5m NNW–SSE; 16.5m ENE–WSW to the road) is defined on the curving side at NNW–S by a scarp (Wth slope 2.6m; ext. H 0.9m) with an external fosse (Wth 1.8-2m), and on the straight side to SW by a field fence bordering a road.
The scarp retains a low internal rim in parts at NNW–E. The fosse is visible only as a slight depression, most distinct at NNW–E and petering out to S. The interior is very slightly raised. A matching rise in ground level is evident in the road bordering the enclosure, suggesting that the road may have truncated the W half the enclosure.
Hazel and blackthorn bushes ring the perimeter and encroach on the interior. It is known locally as ‘The Lisheen’ (Waldron 1995, 12-13).

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 29 June 2022

References

Knox, H.T. 1911 Some Connacht Raths and Motes. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 41, 205-40, 301-42.

Waldron, P.F. 1995 Some sites of archaeological importance in the vicinity of Ballyhaunis. Unpublished MA thesis, NUI Maynooth