What is recorded here

Indicated is a degraded fairy fort in County Mayo, Ireland, where a low earthen scarp still outlines a circular home now choked with gorse and brambles. Dense rushes and irises circle the mound like a forgotten moat, while a faint grassy strip suggests an external bank that time has half-erased. The south entrance may have used a causeway across the wet band, directing feet toward drier ground. Someone shaped that small rise for living, loving or hiding before pasture and rain softened the edges into mystery.

In rough pasture, located on a low rise bordered at SW by a flat expanse of wettish pasture. Slightly raised circular area (26.8m N–S; 25.8m E–W) defined by a low earthen scarp. Outside the scarp there is ephemeral evidence that that the rath may be enclosed by at least one fosse and external bank: a band (Wth 4-4.5m) of dense rushes and irises, which appears slightly sunken (D 0.25m) on the SW arc, encircles the rath, probably indicating a fosse; outside this at S–W there is a band (Wth 3.5-4.8m) of flat, grassy ground, outside which are more rushes (Wth 4-5m) and then gently rising ground. It is possible that the flat grassy strip represents a levelled external bank, however, it cannot be traced around the full circuit of the enclosure. The rath interior has a gently domed profile, with a slope down from the centre (height above ext. ground level 0.6m at S, 0.85m at N) towards the encircling scarp. The entrance may have been at S, where there is a poorly defined slump in the scarp and a corresponding rise (Wth 4-5m), possibly a causeway, traversing the band of rushes, and leading towards gently rising dry ground. The rath is rather degraded, and is dotted with clumps of gorse and brambles. There is a field drain, on a NE–SW axis, a few meters to N of the rath. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 2 May 2019

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