What is recorded here

Indicated is a broken fairy fort in County Mayo, reduced to a D-shaped scar where the eastern half was quarried out before 1837. The remaining western bank still curves through pasture, ringed by hawthorn and worn by farm stock, while local tradition claims a children’s burial ground lies hidden inside. What was taken is gone, but the ridge keeps the shape of the loss, holding both the memory of the fort and the wound made by its destruction.

In pasture, located on top of a ridge with a natural fall of ground to N. The monument consist of the W half of an originally circular rath. It is depicted as a D-shaped embanked enclosure on the 1837 OS 6-inch map, indicating that the E portion of the rath had already been removed by 1837. The extant remains consist of a slightly raised, D-shaped area (39.4m N–S; cord 22m E–W) defined on the curving side S–N by an earthen bank (Wth 3.8m; int. H 0.8m; ext. H 1.4m) with an external fosse (Wth 3.3m; D 0.35m). A field fence/property boundary defines the straight side at E. To E of the fence, no trace of the rath is evident at ground level; the ground surface here is somewhat sunken and it appears that this portion of the rath was quarried out. According to local tradition, there is a children’s burial ground (MA062-033001-) in the rath. The bank is ringed by hawthorn, and erosion by farm stock is evident in parts. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 25 November 2020

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