Discover Alone, back to main map

Indicated

Ecclesiastical enclosure

What is recorded here

Indicated is a suboval ecclesiastical enclosure in County Clare, Ireland, still marked by a low bank, scattered boulders and a church beside a graveyard. Westropp measured a larger stone-faced earthwork in 1913, but later visits found much of it reduced, suggesting that pasture, walls and rubbing memory have shared the work of changing it. The place does not need a grand claim; it keeps a church, a cross and a line of stones on a ridge where people still pass.
On a broad NE-SW ridge in pasture, with gently-sloping land to the NE and SW, and a steeper gradient elsewhere. Indicated as an elongated oval with an irregular stepped SE side on the 1842 ed. of the OS 6-inch map, and as a suboval area on the 1897 OS 25-inch plan and the 1920 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. Listed as ‘Ecclesiastical enclosure (possible)’ in the RMP (1996). Westropp (1913, 250-51) described this enclosure as a ‘much removed’, ‘large low ring-fort of earth and stones’, defined at the S largely by a ‘dry-stonework’ wall and ‘round the north semi-circuit’ by a bank (Wth 3.05-3.66m; H 1.83m) ‘faced with large stones in part’. The NW and SE edges of the enclosure ‘terraced up’ (H c. 1.22m). These enclosing elements had already been substantially reduced by the time of Sheehan’s (1982, 35) visit. An inspection in 1999 found this suboval ecclesiastical enclosure (c. 99m E-W; 83m N-S) to be defined at WSW-NW by a low bank (int. H 0.25m; ext. H 0.4-1m) of stone, gravel and earth. The rest of the edge was defined by a barely traceable scarp. A row (L 28m) of large boulders had been deposited on the edge at the E. Later rubble had been dumped on the enclosure bank at WSW-NW. From NNW to NNE a later field wall overlies or runs just inside the perimeter. In the S centre of the enclosure is a church (CL010-038002-), situated in the NW corner of a graveyard (CL010-038003-). Outside the E side of the graveyard is a broad curvilinear scarp (H 1m). A wayside cross (CL010-038004-) lies c. 90m to the NE where a trackway from the church met the main road. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 5 April 2023

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

Places near here

Add to this placeAdd a picture Comment or add a tip

Explore 1,118,481 places