What is recorded here

Indicated is a fairy fort in County Mayo, Ireland, occupying a grassy rise above undulating bog and pasture. Its oval earth bank has been reduced to a scarp in places, broken by cattle trails and field fences, yet hawthorn and hazel still ring the perimeter like a living guard. The fort may have marked boundary, belief, or memory before humans repurposed its edge for livestock, preserving a shape older than the fences that now cut through it.

In pasture, located on a rise, with extensive views E−W overlooking an expanse of gently undulating grassland and bog. Raised oval area (30 N−S; 35.5m E−W) defined SSE−WNW by an earthen bank, reduced at NNW−SE to an earthen scarp which retains a slight internal lip in parts. The bank on the S−W arc has been adapted to serve as a field fence, and later field fences abut the rath at SE, S, SW and NW. In the N half of the interior there is a slight slope down from centre to N. A low, ruined earth and stone field fence (Wth 0.8m; H 0.2m), on a roughly N−S axis, cuts through the rath to E of centre. Current access to the interior is through a gap (Wth 1.2m) at SE, and there a number of narrow breaks eroded by cattle in the bank at N and E. The perimeter is thickly ringed with hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel. The interior is grassy, with encroachment of blackthorn in the SE quadrant. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 12 May 2021

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