Enclosure, Belladaff, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Belladaff, Co. Mayo

In the townland of Belladaff in County Mayo, an enclosure sits in the landscape, classified, recorded, and yet largely unexamined in any public-facing form.

Enclosures of this kind are among the most common and least understood monument types in Ireland; they can range from prehistoric ringforts, which served as enclosed farmsteads, to later ecclesiastical or defensive boundaries, and without further detail it is often difficult to say which tradition a given example belongs to. That ambiguity is itself part of what makes them worth attention. Mayo is dense with such features, many of them sitting quietly in fields, their earthen banks softened by centuries of weather and grass.

Belladaff is a small townland, and the enclosure recorded there has not yet been fully documented in any publicly available form. What is known is that it has been identified and classified as a monument, placing it within a long tradition of landscape use that stretches back, in many comparable cases, to the early medieval period or earlier. Without further excavation or detailed survey data in the public domain, the enclosure remains something of an open question, a shape in the ground that has caught the attention of those who catalogue such things but has not yet yielded much by way of specifics.

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 Enclosure, Belladaff, 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