What is recorded here

Indicated is a circular fairy fort in County Mayo, Ireland, where a shallow fosse and stony banks still trace a twenty-five-metre chamber beneath heather and bramble. It sits on a peaty rise above the Trimoge River, exposed enough to watch the land and hidden enough to belong to legend. People may have lived there, feared there or simply avoided stepping inside the ring, leaving the fort intact because wonder still gets the last word.

In rough peaty, heather-covered pasture, on a rise with good views over the surrounding undulating landscape. The Trimoge River is 340m to N. Slightly raised circular area (diam. c. 25m E−W) defined by an earth and stone bank, outside which it is enclosed by a fosse with an external bank. The inner bank (Wth 3.7m at W, 3.4m at NE; ext. H 1.1m at W, 1.4m at NE) is incorporated into a later field fence at N−ENE and has an inner facing of drystone walling (H 1m); elsewhere the inner slope of the bank is low (H 0.5m at W) with stones protruding randomly along the top and sides. The fosse (Wth c. 3m) is evident as a shallow depression around the complete circuit. At E−SE the external bank consists of a low earth and stone bank (Wth 1.7m; int. H 0.3m; ext. H 0.5m), reducing on the W arc to a slight heather-covered stony rise (Wth 1m; H 0.1-0.3m) which peters out at NW. The outer bank is missing at NNW−NE, but a cropmark (Wth c. 2m) of field rushes preserves its outline. There is no clearly defined entrance gap –it may have been at E where the bank is lowest. The rath is ringed with hawthorn, hazel, blackthorn and brambles, which have encroached on the N half of the interior. There is another rath (MA071-179----) 180m to N. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 24 September 2021

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