What is recorded here

Indicated is a large oval rath in County Mayo, visible on the 1838 map but absent from later editions, suggesting it was already fading from human notice when first drawn. Its western bank still stands two metres high beside a clear fosse, while the eastern half has softened into grass and memory. A fulacht fia sits ten metres north, implying cooked food and gathered people, perhaps festivals or feasts where the bog mist rose and the terrace dropped away into darkness. The place does not demand belief, but it resists forgetting, holding its shape in pasture and rain while the world around it changed.

In average pasture, sited at the E end of a terrace, on a N-facing slope which falls to an expanse of wet boggy pasture. There are excellent views, blocked now to W by forestry plantation. This large, oval embanked enclosure, most likely a rath, is shown on the 1838 OS 6-inch map; it is not shown on later map editions. It survives as a slightly raised area (65.5m E−W; 41m N−S), ovoid in plan, defined on the W half by a bank/scarp with a broad, low inner lip (Wth c. 4.5m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 2.05m), outside which it is enclosed by a well defined fosse (Wth 2.8m at base), with an external bank (Wth 5.5m; int. H 1.3m; ext. H 1.5m) which is best preserved at W−N. On the E half, the enclosing elements have been levelled to low undulations. A slight rise is evident in the base of the fosse at S, possibly the remnant of a causeway. The central part of the interior is raised, possibly encompassing a natural rise, with a slope down towards the perimeter. The slope is steepest and broadest at NE−E, with a drop in height from centre to perimeter of c. 2m. A field fence crosses the enclosure to W of centre. A small quarry pit cuts into a portion of the fosse and external bank at W, and the inner bank/scarp is disturbed at N. A field fence with contiguous field drain skirts around the NE side of the enclosure in a broad arc. A fulacht fia (MA103-076----) lies immediately N of this fence, c. 10m N of the rath. The rath is grass cover, with the perimeter on W arc ringed with gorse. Another rath (MA103-032----) is located 230m to NE. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 11 November 2022

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