Enclosure, Ballymacgibbon, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Enclosures
On a slight rise in pastureland near Ballymacgibbon in County Mayo, a low circular wall traces out a space that is easy to walk past and difficult to date.
The enclosure measures roughly nineteen metres north to south and seventeen metres east to west, enclosed by a stone wall no higher than forty centimetres, built in what is described as dump construction, meaning the stones were loosely piled rather than carefully coursed or mortared. It is an unassuming thing in the landscape, and that modesty is part of what makes it quietly interesting.
Circular stone enclosures of this kind appear throughout the Irish countryside and can belong to a wide range of periods and purposes. Some are early medieval ringforts, which were farmstead enclosures typically protecting a family's dwelling and livestock. Others served ritual or funerary functions stretching back into prehistory. The interior of this particular enclosure has been dug into at some point, which suggests that someone, at some time, suspected it held something worth finding, or simply used it as a convenient source of loose stone. That intervention complicates any reading of what the site might once have contained.