What is recorded here

Indicated is a Mayo fairy fort where a hidden passage pierces the western earthen wall, leading into darkness beneath a level grassy platform. The southern scarp still rises three metres above the pasture, but the northern edge has blended into the natural slope, erasing the boundary between human making and earth. A lone hawthorn stands at the centre with a boulder at its roots, marking the heart of a place that maps forgot after 1838.

In pasture, utilising the contours of a natural rise, with excellent views over the surrounding undulating terrain, with flat expanses of lowlying ground to SW and NE. There is a stream 50m to W. This rath is indicated as a circular enclosure on the 1838 OS 6-inch map; it is not shown on later map editions. The remains consist of a broadly oval earthen platform (38m E−W; c. 34m N−S) defined on the S half by a high, well defined scarp (H 3m at S, 2m at NW & E) with a broad external slump, incorporating large stones in parts; the scarp has been levelled on the N half so that it merges almost seamlessly with the natural slope. An original entrance may have been at the NE, where the scarp has a gently ramped slope. The interior is level and featureless, with a single hawthorn tree, with a large boulder at its base, roughly in the centre. There is a Man-made underground passage (MA071-008001-) in the rath, with an access opening in the external face of the scarp at WNW. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 25 June 2021

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