What is recorded here

Indicated is a dilapidated fairy fort in County Mayo, Ireland, where a broken earthen bank still draws a circle thirty-six metres wide beside a derelict cottage. Field walls now cut through its interior and line its edge, turning an ancient boundary into ordinary pasture. The lake glitters beyond the grassland while hawthorn rings the scarped bank, suggesting the place remains marked even when human memory fades.

In pasture, located on a slight rise in an area of relatively lowlying grassland, with a small lake located c. 100m to NNW, beyond which is a ridge of higher ground. There is a derelict cottage c. 25m to NE. A slightly raised circular area (37m N–S; 36m E–W) defined by stony bank/earthen scarp (Wth 2.9m at E, 4.3m at W; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 1m at E, 1.6m at W). The bank is rather dilapidated, retaining only a low, stony internal lip. At SW–WNW there is considerable stone tumble on the external slope, and at NW–NNE it is modified with internal stone facing to serve as a field fence/property boundary that respects the curve of the rath. There is a break (Wth 3m) at NE. At SW–W a drystone field wall (Wth 1m), set 2.5m out from the rath scarp, curves around the rath, merging with another field wall that abuts the rath at the W. The intervening gap between the curving field wall and the rath may preserve the outline of a fosse. A slight depression (Wth 2m) outside the scarp at NW–N may also be evidence of a fosse. The interior has a slight dip in ground level in the SW quadrant, and is bisected slightly E of centre by a field wall on a NNE–SSW axis. The perimeter is ringed with hawthorn and blackthorn bushes. A cashel (MA062-097----) is located 70m to SSW. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 10 December 2020

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