What is recorded here

Indicated is a faded circular scar on a Kildare hilltop, one of four spaced enclosures that once marked a deliberate landscape line near Newtown House. The 1838 map showed a broad tree-covered ring, but the boundary has since vanished, leaving only a shallow scarp and a quiet empty circle. It may be a ringfort dressed up as a garden feature, or a garden feature hiding a ringfort. Either way, the land still holds the shape of human intention, waiting for someone to walk its edge and remember what was lost.

Shown on the 1st ed. (1838) of the OS 6-inch map as a roughly circular enclosure (est. max. diam. c. 40m) defined by a field boundary, with a tree-covered interior. One of four enclosures (the other three being rectangular - max. dims. L c. 50m Wth c. 40m), all tree-covered and fairly regularly spaced (distances apart 100m, 100m and 200m) which form a NE-SW landscape feature-line along the hilltop, possibly associated with Newtown House c. 1400m to the S. Near the top of a long, gentle, E-facing pasture slope. A very poorly preserved, circular area (int. diam. 28m) is defined by a low scarp (H 0.2-0.4m) SSE-W-NW and is clear of tree cover. The field boundary indicated on the current OS 6-inch map (1911) running NW-SE across the site has been removed. May be the remains of a subsequently landscaped ringfort? Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.