What is recorded here

Indicated is a hidden settlement cluster on a fern-choked Mayo island where six stone dwellings still stand beneath green shade. The best preserved house measures eleven metres long and keeps two equal apartments, a simple shape that suggests ordinary family life rather than grand display. Its west wall holds a wide doorway, while the east wall holds a smaller opening, as if the building still expects people to pass through. The fern has taken back most of the village, but the stone lines remain clear enough to show that this was not a temporary camp. It was a home, repeated several times along the north-eastern shore.

Three rectangular houses are shown on the 1838 OS 6-inch map in the N half of the island. Noone (1991, 108) recorded that 'At the north eastern end of the island are the ruins of about six dwellings of stone and mortar which contained two apartments of equal size.' The island is densely covered in fern which conceals the remains. The best preserved house (c. 11m NW–SE; 3m NE–SW; Wall T 0.5m, H 0.8m) at ITM 482599 829927 has a slightly sunken interior and a break/doorway (Wth 1.8m) in the middle of the SW wall, and another break (Wth 1m) in the NE wall. It appears to date to the 19th-century. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 20 January 2016

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