What is recorded here

Garrane holds three conjoined earth enclosures stretching ninety-five metres across the Limerick soil, the largest wrapping partly around the other two like a arm around smaller bodies. The western chamber rises half a metre above the land and points northeast like a tuning fork struck once in antiquity. Whoever built them may have expanded a home or marked fields, but the shape suggests growth rather than defence, as if the settlement kept absorbing new life until the earth itself learned the shape of the people within it.

This is an extensive earthwork consisting of three conjoined curvilinear enclosures. In total it measures 95m from west to east and 57m from north to south. The westernmost enclosure measures 45m from west to east and 47m from north to south. It is the most pronounced of the three enclosures and sits between 0.3m and 0.6m above the surrounding land. It is defined by a low bank with a shallow ditch outside that. This westernmost enclosure is largely circular in shape, except in the north east where it comes to a point; its morphology could be described as halfway between circular and plectrum-shaped. The central enclosure, located immediately to the east, is similar in shape but smaller in dimensions, measuring 27m from west to east and 32m from north to south. The easternmost enclosure is the largest in terms of extent, measuring 42m from north to south and at least 35m from east to west (on the south it is potentially up to 80m in length, since it appears to partly enclosure the other two enclosures). The date of the site is unknown but it is clearly pre-modern. It may represent the remains of an early medieval settlement enclosure complex, with the three enclosures built consecutively, either to expand the settlement or to add small fields. Compiled by: Dr Eugene Costello Date of upload/revision: 4 April 2023

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