Earthwork, Davros, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Earthwork, Davros, Co. Mayo

In the low-lying, damp pasture at Davros in County Mayo, a cartographer once drew something that no longer appears to exist.

On the 1915 Ordnance Survey six-inch map, a careful arc of hachuring, roughly twenty metres in diameter and curving from south to north-east, suggests the western half of what may once have been a circular enclosure. A linear feature extends a further sixty-five metres to the west from its southern end. The same area appears on earlier map editions without any such markings, which means whatever prompted the 1915 surveyor to record it either emerged, was noticed, or was interpreted differently in the intervening decades.

When viewed at ground level today, the hachured arc has left no visible trace. What does survive is the linear rock feature, which turns out to be a raised seam of limestone bedrock running east to west. Along its length there is considerable evidence of past quarrying, the kind of small-scale extraction that was once commonplace across the west of Ireland wherever workable stone came close to the surface. The result is uneven, pockmarked ground, with mounds and hollows punctuated by exposed vertical and horizontal planes of limestone. Along the top of this bedrock ridge, remnants of a field boundary survive, part earthen bank and part stone walling. At least three further boundaries extend southward from it at right angles, the ghost of an agricultural layout whose working life is long over. Whether the 1915 surveyor was recording a genuine earthwork enclosure, a misread natural formation, or something that has since been entirely obliterated by quarrying activity, cannot now be determined. The landscape holds the question without resolving it.

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 Earthwork, Davros, 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