What is recorded here

Indicated is a fairy fort in County Mayo, Ireland, holding a roughly circular space twenty-three metres across on a heather-covered rise. Earthen banks, a shallow fosse and a stony outer edge still mark its boundary beneath ferns, brambles and gorse. It may have been a small dwelling, a boundary marker or a place set apart for story, but overgrowth has erased the certainty. What remains is a shape the land still recognises, half hidden and waiting to be read.

In an expanse of rough heather- and scrub-covered pasture and bog, located on an elongated NNW–SSE rise, overlooked immediately to E by a higher rise. Slightly raised, roughly circular area (23.6m NNW–SSE) defined at E–S by an earthen bank (Wth c. 3m; int. H 0.4m; ext. H 1.1m, at SE), reduced elsewhere to a scarp (ext. H 1.2m at W), and enclosed by an fosse (Wth 2.5m, at SE) and external stony bank (Wth c. 3m; int. H 0.35m; ext. 0.6m, at SE). The external bank is evident as a low stony rise, which can be traced at NW–N and SE–SW. Elsewhere it is obscured by overgrowth and difficult to trace; a section at NE may be partly levelled. The interior slopes down from the centre to NE and E. There is a hint that the NE quadrant is marked off from the rest of the interior by a slight scarp, extending NW–SE through the interior, but this could not be determined with certainty due to overgrowth. A shallow depression (c. 3-4m NW–SE; c. 2m NE–SW) can be discerned beneath the overgrowth in the SW quadrant. The interior is densely covered by ferns, brambles and gorse, with gorse and hawthorn defining the perimeter. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 26 January 2021

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