What is recorded here

Indicated is a D-shaped earthen fort in County Mayo, preserved in local tradition as Rath Eilbhin and marked on the 1838 Ordnance Survey map before disappearing from later editions. Its raised platform stands on a low ridge above wet, flat land, with a curving scarp, a straight western edge and a long northern quarry pit suggesting that only part of a larger ring survived. Cattle may still walk across what was once a boundary between fields, memory and claim.

In improved pasture, on a low ridge, overlooking a flat expanse of lowlying, wettish land to SE−S, and overlooked to W by rising ground on which a church (MA071-069----) and an earthwork castle (MA071-070----) are located. A D-shaped enclosure (max. dim. c. 15m) outlined by a solid line is shown on the 1838 OS 6-inch map; it is not shown on later map editions. It is record in an aerial photograph (SMR file: GSI M 690 -1; Roll 217, pr. 30). This possible rath is known in local tradition as a 'fort' named 'Rath Eilbhin (Elvin)'. The remains consist of a raised earthen platform (15m N−S; 15m E−W), an irregular D-shape in plan. It is defined at ENE−SSW by a curving scarp (H 1.8m at E, 1.4m at S), by a straight N−S scarp (H 1.1m) on the W side and by a quarry pit (c. 12m N−S) on the N side. This may represent the surviving SE quadrant of an originally circular enclosure/rath. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 24 September 2021

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