Enclosure in Sheepstown, County Kilkenny

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What is recorded here

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On a low rise with ground falling away in all directions, in undulating terrain, surrounded by pasture. A roughly circular graveyard (KK031-015002-) with a 12th-century church (KK031-015001-) in the N half of the graveyard, is centrally placed within a larger enclosure. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 4, 9), the patron of the church is St. Muicin or Muicceen, whose festival was celebrated on the 4th March. The larger enclosure (dims. c. 47m N-S to S field boundary; 62m E-W) is also roughly circular, though it has been truncated in the S quadrant by a field boundary running ESE-WNW with a farm immediately S of this field boundary. The enclosure is defined by an earthen bank, which in the W sector has been reduced to scarp (H. 0.8m; Wth 3m). In the N sector the bank has probably been incorporated in a field boundary, running roughly E-W, which kinks out in a northward curve on a line where it meets the enclosure. The E quadrant is the best preserved where the bank (int. H 0.35m; Wth at top 0.8m; overall Wth 3.5m; ext. H 1.25m) is almost continuous, apart from a few gaps caused by cattle erosion.

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record KK031-015003

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National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
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