Enclosure, Kildun More, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Kildun More, Co. Mayo

In the pastureland of Kildun More, in County Mayo, there is a site that has effectively ceased to exist above ground, yet continues to appear on maps.

A circular enclosure roughly 38 metres across was recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1929, but by the time archaeologists came to look more closely, it had been levelled entirely, leaving no visible surface traces whatsoever. What remains is essentially a cartographic ghost.

The enclosure is tentatively identified as a ringfort, one of the most common monument types in the Irish countryside. Ringforts were typically enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, defined by one or more circular earthen banks and ditches, and many thousands survive across Ireland in varying states of preservation. This one does not. To the south of the site, an extensive area of flooding adds a further layer of difficulty to any ground-level investigation, softening the landscape and obscuring whatever traces the levelling may have left. The 1994 archaeological survey of the Ballinrobe district, which covers the areas around Lough Mask and Lough Carra, recorded the site as it then stood, noting its probable character while acknowledging the absence of anything concrete to examine.

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Pete F
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