What is recorded here

Midden in Fahy (erris By.) is a half-metre-deep trap of limpet, periwinkle and oyster shells, buried under thin topsoil on an eroding shelf above a cobble beach. The sea drags the land backward each storm, exposing more of the dense kitchen waste that people dumped beside the tower house and bawn to the south. Whoever built that wall cut through the midden, treating generations of discarded supper as foundation. The bay keeps taking the field back, one shovel-load of memory at a time.

Exposed in section on a shallow shelf of sea-eroded farmland, bordering a cobble beach on the S shoreline of a bay. The midden underlies a layer of sod and topsoil (D c. 0.2m). It is evident as a dense layer (D 0.5-1m) of shells, predominantly limpets, periwinkles and oyster, intermixed with stones and occasional large animal bones, in a matric of dark soil. The full extent of the midden is unclear; the eroding section face can be traced for c. 20-30m E-W. A tower house (MA034-002001-) and bawn (MA034-002002-) are located immediately to S of the midden. Part of the bawn wall appears to overlie or cut the midden. (Pers. comm. Eve Campbell, Achill Field School, 11 August 2016). Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 16 August 2016

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