Enclosure in Garraun (costello By.)

In pasture, located on top of a low natural hillock with a flattish top and broadly sloping sides, surrounded by undulating, rocky limestone terrain, with lowlying boggy ground to N. Small scale quarrying is evident at several locations around the circuit of the hillock. Many of the surrounding fields, which are enclosed by drystone walls, have been reclaimed. According to local information, there may have been an enclosure here (SMR file). The evidence is tenuous. A scarp, incorporating occasional stones and boulders, defines the E−S arc of the hill at the break of slope between the flattish top and the sloping sides, possibly the remnants of an enclosure. But the scarp peters out and does not continue around the full circuit of the hill. There is a hint of a scarp on the N side of the hill, but this is difficult to trace as parts of the hill at N and NW have been disturbed by small quarry pits. A straight NNW-SSW field wall crosses the W side of the hill. Several boulders or large stones (max. dim 1.4m; max. H 0.7m) protrude from the flattish top of the hill, in an apparently random manner, possibly related to the quarrying activity. They are irregular in shape and size, spaced between 3-6m apart. Some appear to form an irregular and widely spaced curve, but this seems to be just chance and not a purposeful, built arrangement. Overall they do not appear to form any definite pattern. These stones are probably the features which were interpreted as a possible ‘stone circle’ (MA103-069002-) and a megalithic structure (MA103-099003-). Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 23 November 2022