What is recorded here

Indicated is a 98m ecclesiastical enclosure in County Clare where a carved stone head vanished and a medieval church still stands inside a graveyard wall. Roads and modern buildings have eaten its southern and eastern edges, yet the low earthen bank and later stone facing still mark the boundary on improved pasture beside the foreshore. The place holds layers of loss and continuity: shell middens, a rath, a holy well and a tower house all cluster within a few hundred metres, suggesting this was never an empty field but a lived religious landscape.

On improved pasture c. 300m S of foreshore. A poorly preserved ecclesiastical enclosure (int. diam. 98m N–S) traceable SE-N. Defined by a low earthen bank (H 1m; W 2m) faced internally with a later stone wall (H 1.6m; W 0.4m) at SE and a low scarp (H 0.9m; Wth 2m) and later field wall (H 0.9–1.5m; Wth 0.5–1.2m) SW-N. A later graveyard wall and roadway have removed all trace between S and SW. A road and modern house appear to have removed the sections from N-SE. A rectangular graveyard (CL002-008003-) in its SW quadrant has continued in use into the 20th-century and contains a medieval church (CL002-008002-). A carved stone head (CL002-008007-) was recorded here in the past (pers. comm. Coffey 1994) but is now unlocated and presumed stolen. Two shell middens were also recorded; one (CL002-008005-) is inside the projected S edge of the enclosure, partially under the rectangular graveyard wall (CL002-008003-); the other is unlocated (CL002-008006-) and classified as possible. A rath (CL002-008004-) is located immediately E of the road bordering the E side of the enclosure and the layout of field to the W looks like a medieval addition. Gleninagh tower house (CL007-007001-) and holy well (CL007-007002-) are located c. 240m to the N and a cross inscribed graveslab (CL002-007003-) dated 1650 is built into Gleninagh lodge c. 90m N. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin Date of upload: 1 December 2020

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