What is recorded here

Indicated is a degraded fairy fort in County Mayo, Ireland, where a thirty-seven-metre circular bank has largely surrendered to pasture and field walls. Local tradition claims the rath served as a children’s burial ground, giving its quiet, boulder-strewn interior a solemn edge beneath the ordinary grass. The remaining earth ridge, thistle band and obscured northern depression suggest a lived boundary rather than a forgotten shape, inviting wonder about the young lives and rituals that may have gathered there before the land was reordered.

Located on level ground in an area of undulating average pasture. Views are restricted by rising ground to N and E. Circular area (diam. 37m N-S) defined by a severely degraded bank (Wth c. 4m; max. H 0.5m). The bank is best preserved at W−NE; it peters out at E−SE to a slight rise, overlain by field clearance debris, and is levelled at S−W, where the rath is truncated at the junction of two later field walls. A band of thistles (Wth 4-5m) outside the bank to NE may indicate an infilled fosse. The interior, which is not noticeably raised, has an uneven surface, strewn with boulders. There appears to be a depression close to the inner face of the bank at N and NW, but it was obscured by overgrowth at the time of visit. According to local tradition, the rath was used as a children’s burial ground (MA031-023001-). There is an E−W farm track immediately to S of the rath. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 28 June 2018

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