Enclosure in Rathduff Upper

Carrigan (1905, vol. 4, 51) describes, ‘Killossory, a subdivision of Rathduff, [which] is situated about a mile south of Kells, at the point where the road from Kells to Knocktopher crosses the little stream separating the townlands of Rathduff and Stonecarty’. He goes on to speculate about the location of the church of Killossory, giving as one of the options, ‘within the old “raw” (rath), in the furze, about 20 perches [100m] east of the ford’ (ibid.). This ‘rath’ or enclosure is not indicated on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map or on the 1948 revision and was previously unlocated. However, on both these maps there is a field boundary, c. 100m NE of Killossory Ford/Bridge, which has a pronounced curvilinear kink. On satellite imagery (Google Earth, imagery date 10 June 2008 and 25 April 2021; OS Ortho 2004-2006) the cropmark of a circular enclosure (overall diam. c. 48m) is clearly visible, defined by a fosse. The W perimeter of the enclosure corresponds to the curvilinear kink in the field boundary on the OS maps, this field boundary has since been removed. See attached: KK027-070003-_01 Google Earth satellite imagery, imagery date 10 June 2008 KK027-070003-_02 Google Earth satellite imagery, imagery date 25 April 2021 KK027-070003-_03 OS Ortho satellite imagery, imagery date 2004-2006 Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 18 April 2023