What is recorded here
Indicated is a fairy fort in County Mayo, Ireland, where an earthen bank and shallow ditch enclose grassy ground marked by old cultivation ridges. The southern gap has a slight ramp and a narrow causeway across the ditch, perhaps the entrance used when the ring was last lived in. Hawthorn, gorse and blackthorn still crowd its edge, while stock and burrows wear the bank, suggesting the fort has been both remembered and overlooked.
In pasture, on gently rising ground. To W ground falls gently into an area of wet ground with a spring/well c. 50m to SSW.
Slightly raised, broadly oval area (42m N–S; 36.3m E–W) defined N–SE by an earthen bank (Wth 5m; int. H 1m; ext. H 1.55m) with a broad internal slump, reduced elsewhere to a scarp (H 1.4m) which retains a slight internal lip in parts. Enclosed at the external foot of the bank by a fosse, evident as a slight depression (Wth 3.5-4m) which peters out at SE−S. A slight rise outside the fosse at SW may be all that remains of an outer bank.
The interior is traversed by relict cultivation ridges on a N–S axis which extend across the inner rim of the bank. In the SW quadrant there is a very shallow surface hollow (diam. 3m).
There is a rather dilapidated gap (Wth 5.3m) in the bank at S, with a slight ramp-like access slope and a hint of a causeway (Wth c. 2m) across the fosse, which may be an original entrance. There is also a narrow break (Wth 0.7m) in the bank at E, which seems to broaden externally but is obscured by gorse.
The interior is grassy; the perimeter is ringed with hawthorn, gorse and blackthorn, densest on E half. The external face of the bank is eroded in parts by farm stock and animal burrows.
Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy
Date of upload: 7 February 2022
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- What survives
- Recorded monument
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