Enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

Located in a gently undulating landscape (c. 76m OD) characterised by tillage and pastoral farming, and located towards the S boundary of a field currently in use for tillage farming (July 2021). Landscape gently slopes upwards from E to W towards a highpoint in the landscape (c. 182m OD), which is located c. 1.1kms to the W, and slopes upwards to the SE towards a highpoint (c. 223m OD), located c. 675m to SE, where there is\was a cairn (WI031-028----) known locally as ‘the Old Woman’ (now in forestry plantation – July 2021). Site located c. 2.1kms NE of a church (WI031-035---) and c. 2kms NE of the remains of a house (WI031-023----) of sixteenth\seventeenth century date, indicated as ‘Dunganstown Castle’ on the Ordnance survey first ed. six-inch map of c. 1840, at Dunganstown West, and c. 2.4kms E\ESE of a pair of houses (WI031-048----), also of sixteenth\seventeenth century date, at Ballymurrin. This enclosure is faintly visible on the Google Earth aerial photograph of the site (July 2021) where part of the N arc a bivallate enclosure is evident. It consists of the N arc of a bivallate subcircular feature (ext. dims c. 77m N-S x 72.4m E-W) that is defined by an outer ditch (Wth c. 2.3m) and an inner ditch (Wth c. 1.46m) that are located c. 5.5m apart. Part of the NE quadrant of this feature may also be faintly visible on the above aerial photography while the track\outline of the outer bank\ditch may be preserved to the S in the slightly curving field boundary. No visible evidence for an entrance gap.

Compiled by: T.J. O'Meara based on details provided by Jean-Charles Caillère

Uploaded on: 03/07/2023