What is recorded here

Indicated is a ruined fairy fort on a steep Mayo knoll, quarried in the early 1900s and now choked with hazel, blackthorn and brambles. Its remaining scarped edge still stands beside a farm track, while local memory claims it marked the burial of unbaptized babies. What is left feels less like a monument than a swallowed room, half buried under thorns and human forgetting.

In a thicket of overgrowth in the E half of a pasture field, located on top of a steep-sided knoll, overlooking flat, lowlying ground. A low ridge restricts views to N. An old farm track skirts the E side of the knoll, and there is a farmstead immediately to E. Roughly oval area (c. 20m N−S; c. 15-18m E−W) encompassing the top of the knoll, and defined by a scarp (c. 1.8m at SE) merging with the natural slope. In parts the scarp is topped by a slight stony rim. The scarp has a broader, lower slope at NE; the original entrance may have been on this side. The NW part of the knoll has been deeply quarried out in the early 20th century to a depth of c. 3m, destroying the NW and centre of the rath interior. The surviving portion of the interior has a very slight slope outwards from centre to the perimeter There is a local tradition that the rath was used for the burial of unbaptized babies (MA063-007001-); one grave is visible in the SE quadrant. The rath is engulfed in hazel, blackthorn and brambles. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 7 July 2020

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