What is recorded here

Indicated is a ruined fairy fort in County Mayo, Ireland, where a shallow scarp and faded trackway still mark the edge of an old circular enclosure beside wet pasture and Derrycreen Loughs. It began as a lived-in ring of earth, perhaps for housing, herding or boundary, but sandpit work and field fences cut through it until only a small SE corner remained clear enough to hold a children’s burial ground. The place keeps its shape less as a monument than as a memory: a fort named only Indicated, pointing back to itself across pasture, water and forgetting.

In average pasture, ground falls away to NE, levelling out to an expanse of wet pasture and bog bordering Derrycreen Loughs. Views are good N−E; restricted to W by gently rising ground. Shown on the 1838 OS 6-inch map as a roughly circular enclosure (diam. 50-55m); by the time of the 1916 edition only the SSW−NNW arc of the enclosure is shown. This enclosure has been levelled but it is possible to trace the outline of a sub-circular area (diam. c. 40-45m), crossed roughly centrally by a later field fence on a NE–SW axis, and slightly truncated at S–SW by a field fence on a NW–SE axis. A scarp (H 0.9m) extending SW–NW in a shallow curve appears to preserve the W arc of the enclosure. Outside the scarp at SW–W is a slightly sunken trackway (Wth 3m; D 0.3m) on a NE–SW axis, which extends to NE beyond the enclosure for a few meters and then peters out; it is possible that this preserves the line of an original enclosing fosse. Very ephemeral traces of an enclosing scarp are also evident at SE. A sandpit (now disused) has destroyed most of the E half of the interior, leaving untouched only a small area in the SE quadrant occupied by a children’s burial ground (MA093-015001-). The site is known locally as a ‘fort’. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 14 June 2022

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