Ecclesiastical enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in a fold on the NE-facing slope of what was once the Great Island (dims c. 2.5km N-S; c. 800m E-W at S to 1.8km E-W at N) in the N-S River Barrow/Nore but the channel (Wth c. 500-600m) around the NE and E sides of the island is long silted up and reclaimed. The site of an early church and the parish church of Kilmokea (WX039-018002-) and the small D-shaped graveyard (WX039-0189006-) are within a large enclosure (dims. c. 330m N-S; c. 260m E-W) defined by an earthen bank best preserved (Wth 7m; ext. and int. H 2m) SW-W where it is separated by a berm (Wth 3-4m) from an outer fosse (Wth 10m; D 1.5m). There is a granite bullaun stone (WX039-018005-) in the base of this section of the fosse. Archaeological testing (02E0071) just inside the perimeter at E and c. 70m ENE of the graveyard and S of the E-W public road uncovered evidence of a ditch with an internal bank on the line of the enclosure, but further testing (07E0941) outside the line of the enclosure c. 120m to the ENE of the graveyard and N of the road produced no related material (Stafford 2010). Archaeological testing (10E0126) outside the W edge of the enclosure c. 225m W of the graveyard produced no related material (Stafford 2013). Archaeological monitoring (15E0412) in Area 1 of a gas pipe under the E-W road through the enclosure identified the fosse at W (Wth of top 4.4m; D 1.2m) where it was U-shaped and filled with orange subsoil and at the E where it was V-shaped (Wth of top 2.4m; D 1.4m) and cut through the shale bedrock. At the E it was backfilled with natural clay and broken bedrock and no dating material was recovered. Two pits (diam. 1.6m; D 1.2m: 1.4m; D 1.1m) and a section of paving (L 1.8m) were also recorded. (Sutton 2018; excavations.ie 2015:422)

A small stream runs N through the enclosure from two small springs on the S side of an E-W public road. About a third of the interior is occupied by buildings or landscaped gardens and the rest is in pasture but the perimeter is either planted in forestry or hedges. A horizontal mill (WX039-018008-) was found beside the stream c. 1970, and Westropp (1918, 11) describes what might be a moated site (WX039-018011-) N of the road and W of the stream. A resistivity survey undertaken in 2014 (Flynn and Grennan 2016, 67-71) c. 100m W of the graveyard and N of the road recovered evidence of what might be a D-shaped enclosure (WX039-018012-).

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 27 January, 2017
Amended: 19 October 2020

References

Stafford, E. 2010. Great Island. No archaeological significance. in I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2007: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 548, No. 1965. Dublin, Wordwell

Stafford, E. 2004. Kilmokea House, Kilmokea. Ecclesiastical site. in I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 518, No. 1916. Bray, Wordwell

Stafford, E. 2013 Great Island, Kilmokea No archaeological significance. in I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2010: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 248, No. 775. Dublin, Wordwell

Westropp, T.J. 1918 Five large earthworks in the barony of Shelbourne, Co. Wexford, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquries of Ireland, vol. 48, 1-18.

Flynn, J. and Grennan, T. 2016 ‘What does the Kilmokea enclosure enclose?' in I. Doyle and B. Browne (eds) Medieval Wexford: Essays in memory of Billy Colfer, 62-72. Dublin, Four Courts Press

Sutton, B. 2018 Archaeological monitoring along the Wexford feeder main. Areas 1-13. Licence No. 15E0412. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy