What is recorded here

Ballymacthomas holds a rare double-edged enclosure beside a River Lee tributary, where marsh water still seeps through soil that people tried to drain for pasture. The larger ring measures about two hundred by one hundred and fifty five metres, and the smaller one sits inside it like a room within a room. Neither appeared on the 1892 Ordnance Survey map, so the land kept that much of its shape secret from the surveyors.

'Situated in a field on the immediate eastern side of a tributary of the River Lee. The portion of land on which these sites occur slopes gently westwards. The main features within the complex are earthen enclosures, small mounds, a linear earthwork and a possible barrow with portions of double banks remaining. All of these sites are partially denuded due to reclaimation, this field still being slightly marshy despite efforts to reclaim the land for the purposes of pasture.............a rectangular enclosure, 200m N-S by 155 E-W surrounds the landowners farmhouse and farmyard. This may be the remains of a field or it may be a large enclosure. It was not marked as either on the OS Second Edition 1892.' Compiled by Michael Connolly for the Archaeological Survey of Ireland as part of a survey of the Lee Valley area in 1996-97. Date of upload: 02 May 2012

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