Burial ground, Rathroe, Co. Mayo

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Burial Grounds

Burial ground, Rathroe, Co. Mayo

On a hilltop in Rathroe, Co. Mayo, a low grass-covered mound sits in ordinary pasture, unremarkable at first glance.

It measures roughly fifteen metres east to west and eleven metres north to south, rising only half a metre or so above the surrounding ground. That modest elevation is enough, though, to command sweeping views across the valley of the Rathroe River, with Nephin Mountain filling the southern horizon. The surface of the platform is uneven, marked by low hollows and undulations that suggest it has not been left entirely undisturbed. It is defined by an eroded, irregular scarp, and the whole structure appears to be of earthen construction, flat-topped and subrectangular in outline.

The identity of the mound as a burial site was confirmed not through excavation but through accident. When a field fence was being laid to the south of the platform, human bones were unearthed on or near it. This was recalled in conversation with a local resident, Seán Gilvarry of Rathroe, in May 2016. A second, smaller mound lying just six metres to the north is also known locally as a burial. The wider landscape around this quiet hilltop is layered with early remains: a rath, the ringfort-type enclosure common across rural Ireland and typically associated with early medieval settlement, lies roughly two hundred metres to the north-north-west, and a tower house, a type of compact defended residence common in late medieval Ireland, stands about a hundred and sixty metres to the north-east. The burial mound sits among these monuments without being obviously connected to any of them, its origins and date unrecorded.

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Pete F
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