Field system, An Tinbhear, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Field system, An Tinbhear, Co. Mayo

On a north-facing slope above the Owenduff River in County Mayo, the stones of an ancient field boundary quietly incorporate what is left of something far older.

Scattered among rush-covered humps and stony heather, the boundary crosses a megalithic tomb, a prehistoric monument typically built from large upright stones capped with a heavy lintel, and the two structures are connected in a way that suggests one was largely dismantled to build the other.

The field system here is organised around a single long boundary running roughly east-northeast to west-southwest, with possible further divisions branching off at the point where the tomb once stood. The western arm of this boundary extends for around 32 metres as a composed stone wall before dissolving into low irregular mounds that continue for a further 20 metres. A possible boundary also runs northward from a surviving upright sidestone of the tomb, and a raised area immediately to the south may represent another. The working assumption is that the field divisions post-date the tomb and that its stones were robbed out to make them, a pragmatic recycling of ancient material that was probably entirely unremarkable to whoever did it. The eastern stretch of the boundary has disappeared at ground level entirely, though it remains visible on aerial photography taken in 2005, its trace preserved in the subtle variation of the ground surface rather than in any stone you could touch.

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Pete F
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