Enclosure, Aghtaboy, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Enclosures
In the townland of Aghtaboy in County Mayo, there is a recorded archaeological enclosure.
That much is certain. Beyond the bare fact of its existence on the official record, almost nothing has been made publicly available about it, which places it in a curious category of Irish monument: officially acknowledged, formally classified, and almost entirely undescribed.
Enclosures are among the most common and most varied features in the Irish archaeological landscape. The term covers a broad range of structures, from the circular earthen banks of prehistoric ringforts, which served as defended farmsteads, to later ecclesiastical enclosures marking the boundaries of early Christian sites. Without further detail, it is impossible to say which tradition the Aghtaboy example belongs to, what period it dates from, or what state of preservation it is in. The townland name itself, Aghtaboy, likely derives from the Irish Achadh Buí, meaning yellow field, a descriptor that tells us something about the land but nothing about what was built on it or by whom.