What is recorded here

Sweat Ho is a ruined circular sweathouse hidden in a coniferous forest in County Leitrim, marked only on the 1910 map. Its low wall and broken opening suggest people once heated stones, doused them with water, and sat in thick steam until their skins tightened and their minds went quiet. The forest has taken back most of the shape, but the small circle still points to a place where the body was used as an instrument for listening.

Marked only on the 1910 ed. of the OS 6-inch map with a house c. 150m to the SW. It is situated at the bottom of a steep S-facing slope in the valley of an E-W stream and in a mature coniferous forest. A circular area (int. diam. 1.4m E-W; 1.3m N-S) is defined by the remains of a wall (max. H 0.8m at N) with traces of a mound around it (ext. diam. 3.6m E-W). There is a destroyed opening at SE. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 September 2008

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