What is recorded here

Promontory fort is a narrow west-facing headland in County Mayo, cut from the mainland by a fosse and overlooked by higher ground. Sheep still graze the flat land beside it, while rocks thrown up from the sea scatter the featureless interior. The place belongs to the coastal fort tradition of the Mullet peninsula, where stone, water and cliff did the work of walls.

This previously unrecorded fort lies on a peninsula immediately to the S of a nearby fortified headland (MA009-003001-) in an area of flat sheep grazing along the western shore of the Mullet peninsula. The promontory fort is overlooked by higher ground inland. A long rectangular W-facing promontory measuring 34m long by only 7m across is cut off from the mainland by a fosse with slight indications of a stone wall outside it. The fosse measures 3m wide and 60cms deep. Regular uprights standing in the ground 4m outside the fosse may be the remains of a stone wall running across the neck of the headland. There is no trace of an entrance. The flat interior is featureless and rocks thrown up from the sea are strewn about. A recently exposed section through the defences along the southern cliff face shows that the fosse was up to 1.5m deep and may have been partly rock-cut. To the SW there is another promontory forts (MA009-005001-) and a number of hut sites (MA009-005005-, MA009-005006-, MA009-005011-). These descriptions are derived from the MA thesis of Markus Casey 1999 The coastal promontory forts of Ireland. A survey of counties Sligo, Mayo, Galway and Clare. Unpublished MA thesis, National University of Ireland, Galway. Date of upload: 5 December 2018

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.