What is recorded here

Indicated is a fairy fort in County Mayo, Ireland, holding a flat grassy oval within a sharp scarp and wide fosse. It overlookes wet boggy ground while hazel and hawthorn ring its edge, marking the boundary between the inhabited field and the deeper unknown. The name Lisnacartha suggests artisans once worked there, yet their tools and stories have vanished, leaving only the shape of their presence to tempt imagination.

In pasture, on rising ground overlooking expanses of wet, boggy ground to S–SE, and with views of higher ground to N. Slightly raised oval area (34.5m N–S; 40.8m E–W) defined by a scarp (H 1.6m), outside which it is enclosed by a fosse (Wth 3.5m at N, 4m at S) with remnants at SE–NE of an external bank (Wth 2.9m at N, 3.5m at S; int. H 1.1m; ext. H 0.5m). The enclosing scarp has a relatively vertical face which may be the result of relatively recent modification. The external bank has been adapted to serve as a field fence at SE–NW, and traces of stone facing are evident in parts. The original entrance may have been at ESE where there is a low gap (Wth 2.2m) in the scarp and a hint of a causeway across the fosse. The rath interior is grassy, flat and featureless; the perimeter is ringed with hazel and hawthorn trees. Cultivation ridges on a N–S axis are visible to N of the rath in the same field. Knox (1908, 110; 1911, 230) recorded that name of this rath as ‘Lisnacartha (Lis of the Artisans)’. Two raths (MA092-029----; MA092-030----) are located c. 250m to S and c. 260m to SE, respectively. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 23 February 2022

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