What is recorded here

Enclosure in Bushfield is a levelled rath in County Mayo pasture, reduced to a faint stony arc and grassy swells beside ruined Bushfield House. It escaped every survey map because ploughs and time erased its shape, yet the western bank still throws up large stones like a buried fist. The missing circle may have marked a home, a shrine or a boundary for people whose names vanished before the house was built.

In pasture, located on a slight rise in gently undulating terrain broken by limestone outcropping. Ground rises gently to E. Bushfield House, an 18th-century country house (now in ruins) and associated farm buildings are located 260m to SE. This possible rath is not shown on any edition of the OS 6-inch maps. It has been levelled and the remains are very low profile at ground level. Subcircular area (32m N−S; c. 30m E−W) defined on the W arc by a low stony rise/bank (Wth 1.5-2m; H 0.2-0.3m) from which large stones protrude, and elsewhere by a barely discernible undulation. Traces of a linear N−S feature –possibly a levelled field wall −extend from the perimeter at N through the NE quadrant towards the centre of the enclosure. Levelled field boundaries/walls merge with the enclosure at SW and NW and E –they are evident as low linear grass-covered rises. A single hawthorn tree stands on the perimeter at NW. Attached images: MA119-077----_01.JPG Enclosure viewed from SW MA119-077----_02.JPG Stony bank on W arc MA119-077----_03.JPG Enclosure viewed from E Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 26 August 2021

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