Breen's Fort, Ballyhowly, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Ringforts

Breen’s Fort, Ballyhowly, Co. Mayo

What you find at Ballyhowly is a rath that has been substantially eaten away from the inside.

A rath is an early medieval circular enclosure, typically defined by an earthen bank and ditch, that once served as a farmstead or the residence of a person of local standing. This one in County Mayo survives in outline, but its interior has been largely quarried out, leaving a landscape of pits, hollows, and scattered mounds of extracted material where a more or less intact enclosure once stood.

The structure sits on a south-facing slope of a ridge, and its builders clearly accounted for the gradient. The southern half of the circular platform appears to have been deliberately built up to compensate for the natural fall of the land, and the external bank, the low earthen rampart lying outside the fosse or ditch, reflects this asymmetry in its dimensions, being notably broader and more pronounced on the downslope southern side. The overall platform measures roughly 36 metres in diameter. The enclosing fosse is approximately 2.2 metres wide, and the external bank reaches an internal height of around 1.5 metres on the northern side. Only a crescent-shaped strip along the north-west to east arc has remained more or less undisturbed; everywhere else, the quarrying has left a stony, uneven surface scattered with prostrate slabs, particularly concentrated in the south-west quadrant. The fosse itself is partly choked with quarry spoil and field clearance debris, and a section of the external bank has been levelled or cut back on the south-west to north-west side. Where the original entrance once stood is now uncertain, though the south-east may hold a partial answer: there is a possible causeway crossing the fosse there, though displaced dumps of material make any firm reading of it difficult.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Breen’s Fort, Ballyhowly, Co. Mayo. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement