What is recorded here

Indicated is a broken fairy fort on a Mayo hill, its eastern half stolen by a quarry pit while the western scarps still hold against the sky. Brambles and blackthorn strangle the remaining curve, hiding a place that once commanded broad views over bog and grassland. The loss is not quiet; it is a wound in the earth where human hands took what the fortress kept.

In pasture, in a thicket of overgrowth, located on top of a hill giving good views NW–NE over a broad expanse of grassland and bog. There is a N-flowing stream 90m to W. The ground falls steeply to S–SE into a natural depression of wet ground. This rath is shown on the 1837 OS 6-inch map as an oval embanked enclosure, with a field boundary on a N-S crossing the E half of the interior, and a building/farmstead abutting the W side. On 1919 OS edition only the W half of the enclosure is depicted. Only the W half of the rath remains. It consists of a semi-circular, raised area (c. 30m N–S; c. 15-20m E–W to quarry pit) defined SSW–N by an earthen scarp (Wth slope 2.3m; H 1m at NW). The E half of the enclosure has been quarried away, although it is possible that a portion of the enclosure may be incorporated into the remnants of a N–S field fence on the E edge of the quarried area. A farm track on a NW–SE axis, flanked by field fences, clips the W edge of the rath, and a field fence on a roughly E–W axis, clips the scarp at N. It is densely covered in brambles and hawthorn and blackthorn bushes. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 7 December 2020

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