What is recorded here

Indicated is a circular earthen fort in County Mayo, Ireland, hidden inside a dense thicket of blackthorn, hawthorn and hazel on a ridge slope. Its bank reaches 2.3m externally on the southern half and may have had a shallow outer ditch, though rising ground blunts that claim. The fort is not a grand ruin but a living boundary, with pasture fencing nearby and vegetation owning most of its interior. It still performs its old job: excluding sight, entry and certainty.

In a thicket of overgrowth in the NE corner of a pasture field, located at a fold in the NW slope of a ridge, with good views to W; rising ground restricts views E−S. Raised circular area (c. 31m N−S) defined by an earthen bank (Wth 3m at NE, 5.2m at SW; int. H 0.6m at NE,1.45m at SW; ext. H 1.4m at NE, 2.3m at SW). The bank, composed of sandy silty soil, is noticeably higher and more substantial on the S half. It is topped in parts with a thin scatter of stones There is a slight depression (Wth c. 2.6m) outside the bank at SW, which may indicated a fosse, however, it is unclear to what extent it is just an effect create by naturally rising ground which backs the rath here. A field fence skirts the rath on the E side, with an intervening gap of 5m. The rath interior is engulfed in a thicket of blackthorn and the perimeter is thickly ringed with hawthorn and hazel trees. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 22 July 2021

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