Men discovered prehistoric enclosure in Kilkenny field

Two keen photographers discovered a previously-unknown monument beneath a tillage field in Duninga, near Paulstown back in 2018.

James Burke and his nephew Brian Dwyer were taking advantage of the recent drought conditions to explore the area close to James' house with a drone.

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The pair were delighted to find a the structure, revealed as a crop mark, in a cornfield near the River Barrow.

The Barrow Valley has been home to people for thousands of years, and James had been aware that there is another known enclosure nearby.

"Where there's one, there are generally more," he told Kilkenny Live.

"We knew it was a unique time to find things. If you look on Google Maps, there is nothing visible, but because it was so dry and the crops are there, the ditches hold more moisture."

The moisture in the ditch leads to deeper roots in crops, which showed up from above as a dark circle, with distinct entrance. As the drought eases and crops are harvested, the visible marks will eventually vanish.

The duo reported their find to the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, and it has since been officially confirmed as a new discovery on the database.

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"Thank you so much for contacting the National Monuments Service re the newly identified monument in Duninga," wrote back archaeologist Jean Farrelly.

"The cropmark defines an enclosure which has not previously been known about. It does not appear on any of the editions of the Ordnance Survey maps and it has not been identified on other aerial photographs. I have entered this as a new monument into the Sites and Monuments Record under the record number KK021-049."

The entry reads: 'A circular enclosure (diam. c. 20m) defined by a fosse with a break in the fosse in the NE quadrant probably indicating the entrance. An upstanding field boundary runs roughly E-W immediately S of the enclosure. Another enclosure (KK021-048) is located c. 220m to the NNE.'

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