What is recorded here

Enclosure in Rathfran is a low curving bank beside a rath in County Mayo, Ireland, now partly lost beneath a modern pasture field. It may have marked a boundary, a dwelling edge, or a place set apart before the present straight field lines took hold. The Palmerstown River still flows below the terrace, carrying what the land no longer explains.

Located on level ground in the N end of a modern rectangular pasture field, immediately E of a rath (MA015-026001-). The level ground is part of a natural terrace, at the top of SE-facing slope, overlooking mouth of Palmerstown River. Ground rises sharply to the NW. A road, on a roughly E-W axis, borders the N end of the field. This possible enclosure is not indicated on OS 6-inch maps. An inspection in 1978 recorded it as a low bank/scarp, which extended to E and NE from the S side of the rath (MA015-026001-), defining the curving S side of a roughly D-shaped area (c. 35-40m NE−SW; c. 45m NW−SE), with the straight side at N formed by the modern road-side fence (SMR File: OPW Field Notes). An inspection in 2017 found that the curving scarp/bank is extant where it borders a low terrace on which a possible house (MA015-026003) is located, immediately to S of the rath, but it has been levelled where it extended through the field to E and NE of this. Though termed an ‘enclosure’ in the 1978 report, the bank/scarp may simply have been a field boundary. Its significance and date is uncertain –it appears to post-date the rath, but clearly differs in orientation to, and most likely predates, the current rectilinear grid of fields. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 31 August 2017

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