What is recorded here

Indicated is a ruined circular fort in County Mayo, Ireland, where a collapsed stone wall still outlines a buried chamber and grave slabs. The chamber appears on an 1838 map as a cave, but the chamber may have been a hole cut through living rock, a doorway into the hill rather than a room built by human hands. The fort stands in pasture and bog, ringed by thorn and elder, with a narrow track clipping its edge and fences blocking part of the view. It is the kind of place where the boundary between the made world and the hidden world becomes thin.

In pasture in an area of mixed grassland and bog, straddling a slight rise. Views good to N and E, but restricted now elsewhere by field fences and trees. Raised circular area (c. 35m NNE−SSW) defined by a scarp topped by a ruined drystone wall. In parts the wall rises 0.5m above interior ground level, but for most of the circuit it has collapsed into a dense band of loose stone tumble. In parts at SE−S and at SW−W the scarp is faced with drystone walling (H 1.8m at S). There is a low eroded gap (W c. 1m) at SE, but it is unclear if this is an original entrance. The level interior is strewn with loose stones. It contains a Man-made underground passage (MA051-007003-), marked as ‘Cave’ on the 1838 OS 6-inch map. The interior was used as a burial ground (MA051-007002-); a number of small upright slabs mark or outline graves. The perimeter is thickly ringed with blackthorn, hawthorn and elder trees; elder and thorn bushes also encroaching on interior, which impeded inspection. A slumped heap of stone –probably field clearance – is piled against the scarp at S. An old trackway (Wth 1m) flanked by field fences clips the NE edge of the rath. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 17 June 2020

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