What is recorded here

Indicated is a D-shaped fairy fort on an east-facing slope in County Mayo, its western third levelled by fields but its eastern arc still rising behind hawthorn and blackthorn. The broken bank at the southeast may have marked an entrance, while the built-up interior leans slightly eastward beneath a wide view over rolling pasture. Someone shaped that slope into a room for living, watching, or remembering long before fences straightened its edge.

In pasture, located on an E–facing slope, providing very good views over rolling pastureland N–SE. This rath is shown on the 1838 OS 6-inch map as a circular embanked enclosure, with the bank at W incorporated into N–S field boundary, and on the 1930 edition as a D-shaped enclosure with the straight side at W formed by a N–S field boundary. This rath, originally circular in plan, survives as a raised D-shaped platform (31m N–S; 19m E–W to fence) enclosed on the curving side NNW-S by remnants of an earth and stone bank, and on the straight side at W by a N-S field fence. The W third of the rath has been levelled. The surviving arc of bank is largely reduced to a scarp, with a low, stony internal rim, but it has a pronounced external slope (Wth slope 2.5-3.5m; ext. H 1.5m at E, 1.7m at NE), enhanced by the natural fall of ground. There is a break/low area (Wth 2.8m) in the bank/scarp at SE, possibly the site of an original entrance. The interior is built up to create a level area, compensating for the natural slope, but still retains a slight slope down from centre to E. Low, tumbled remnants of an E–W drystone field wall extend across the N half of the interior. Field clearance stones are piled up along the line of the bank, which is ringed with hawthorn and blackthorn trees. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 1 April 2020

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.