Enclosure in Oxpark

Situated in gently undulating pastureland on a natural rise of ground, 500m N of Cloghjordan House (TN016-001003-) and the historic village of Cloghjordan (TN016-001----). Depicted as a large circular enclosure (approx. overall diam. 60m) on the 1st ed. (1840) OS 6-inch map but not marked on the revised 1901 edition suggesting that the monument was levelled between these dates. The site consisted of a roughly circular enclosure (int. diam. c. 47m N-S; 50m E-W), the E side of which is now incorporated into the three back gardens of modern dwellings where a slight rise in the field denotes the enclosing bank (Wth c. 5m) of the monument. The W side of the site, in the field to the W of the garden plots, is defined by a gently sloping scarp (1m H). The cropmark of the W half of this enclosure is visible on OSi Digital Globe orthophotos taken 2011-13. Geophysical survey carried out under licence No. 06R0020 in this field in 2006 discovered the site of a ditch-barrow located immediately to the SW of this enclosure (Harrison 2006). Subsequent archaeological test trenching of this monument by Emer Dennehy on behalf of Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd. in 2006 under licence number 06E0257 confirmed the feature as that of a ditch-barrow (TN011-038----) and suggested the possibility that the large enclosure may be the site of a prehistoric ritual enclosure rather than that of a possible medieval ringfort (Dennehy 2009, 490). See attached image showing cropmark of enclosure on Digital Globe aerial imagery and plot from Geophysical survey showing outline of large enclosure with smaller ditch-barrow (TN011-038----) immediately to W, taken from Harrison 2006. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 6 May 2020