RAHAN MONASTIC SITE - Offaly County Council

3.0 PHYSICAL EVIDENCE3.0 PHYSICAL EVIDENCE3.1 Sub-surface archaeologyMonastic Enclosure and Earthworks (SMR No. OF016-015005/OF016-015004)The monastic enclosure measures 500m east to west by 325m north to south. Large enclosures of this type are acharacteristic feature of the early monastic settlements founded in County Offaly and the neighbouring midlandregions. The ecclesiastical enclosure is now utilised as a field boundary to the south, east and west. Traces ofthe levelled enclosure can still be seen in the field to the southeast of the Bridge House. The Clodiagh Rivercompletes the enclosure to the north, and may originally have supplied water to the fosse between the twoconcentric earthen banks of the enclosure, thus creating a moat around the monastery of Rahan. Inside theenclosure there are traces of a millrace that appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map.This millrace was lengthened to the east during the nineteenth century when considerable drainage works werecarried out inside the enclosure and to the surrounding fields of the former monastery of Rahan. The majority ofthe earthworks inside the monastic enclosure appear to create small platforms or fields containing cultivationridges that are surrounded by drainage ditches feeding into a water channel running parallel to the ClodiaghRiver. These earthworks appear to be an attempt to drain the land inside the enclosure around the latter half ofthe nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century. Running parallel to the Clodiagh River, there is a longalmost continuous spoil heap which is the result of a river drainage scheme carried out by the state during the1940s and 1950s.The geophysical survey carried out by Dr Paul Gibson has revealed that there is substantial sub-surface archaeologyinside the monastic enclosure at Rahan. He has identified a possible inner sub-rectangular enclosure aroundthe medieval church and graveyard, with a possible square-shaped building outside this enclosure to theFigure 31. Results of geophysical survey carried out by Dr Paul Gibson inside the monastic enclosure.39