What is recorded here

Indicated is a rocky oval cashel in County Mayo, Ireland, where a thick drystone wall climbs a sharp slope to hold back the sky. It sits above wet rush ground and small ancient fields, watching the south with no clear door but gaps where the wall has fallen. The stones may have kept out rain, wolves or forgetting itself.

In rough, rocky pasture, straddling an E-facing slope with extensive views, especially to S. At the base of slope immediately to NE−SE of the cashel there is an expanse of flat wet, rush-grown ground. A network of small rectangular and sub-rectangular fields (MA073-036----), dotted with small field clearance cairns, extends to N. Oval area (30.3m WNW-ESE; 37m NNE-SSW) enclosed by a drystone wall (Wth 2-2.4m; int. H 1-1.5m; ext. H 1.5-1.7m). The cashel straddles a break of slope so that the enclosing wall at E−SW is not freestanding, but forms a facing (H 1.7-2m) on a scarp created to compensate for the natural slope. The external wall face is largely intact, with basal courses of large stones and boulders and upper courses of horizontally laid medium-sized stones and slabs; some sections at E and SE appear to have been modified or rebuilt in relatively recent times. The inner wall face is partly collapsed and is almost entirely obscured by sod and heather. At N and NW, sod-covered stone heaps (4-7m E-W; 1.5-2m N-S; H 0.7m) abut the inner face of the wall; these may be the result of wall collapse or possibly field clearance. In the interior, a broadly sloping E-facing scarp curves NE−SE, marking a drop in height of c. 0.7m in the E-SE quadrant. A kidney-shaped cairn of field stones (6.6m N-S; 3m; H 0.8m) is located in the NW quadrant. There is no clearly defined entrance; short sections of collapsed wall at S and NW currently allow access to the interior. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 2 June 2021

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