Indicated (1838). — Mountirvine

On the margins of a flat expanse of marshy pasture, overlooked by rising ground to S. The moated site is low and degraded and barely visible amidst the surrounding rushes. A low square platform (c. 21m NW-SE; 22m NE-SW), with rounded corners, defined by a scarp (H 0.6m) with an intervening fosse (Wth 3m at NE; 4.8m at SW) and an external bank (Wth 3-3.5m; int. H 0.5m; ext. H 0.4m). The platform is level and covered with rushes. The enclosing elements are best preserved on the SW side and less well preserved, but still visible, on the NW and NE sides. A grassy cropmark (Wth c. 2m) on top of the scarp at the W end of the SW side and on the NW side may indicate a levelled inner bank. The fosse is marked by a dense growth of rushes and is narrower on the NE side. The outer bank appears as a low grassy rise, degraded in parts on the NW and NE sides to little more than a grassy cropmark. On the E corner, the SE side and the S corner the scarp is very poorly defined, the fosse cannot be distinguished from the surrounding expanse of wet ground and the outer bank is not evident. The site is crossed NE of centre by a field boundary and drain on a NW-SE axis. A strip of flat wet ground (Wth 12m) separates the moated site from the gently rising dry ground to S. This area is crossed by a stony causeway (Wth 2.3m) that cuts through the outer bank on the SW side and continues over the fosse to the platform. The causeway continues across the platform, cutting the field boundary, the fosse and the outer bank on the NE side. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005). Date of upload: 18 January 2008