Enclosure, Cloonboorhy, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Enclosures

Enclosure, Cloonboorhy, Co. Mayo

In a pasture field in Cloonboorhy, County Mayo, a roughly circular earthwork sits so low in the landscape that most people walking across it would not know they were doing so.

The remains measure approximately 26.5 metres east to west and 26 metres north to south, making it a reasonably substantial feature, yet the defining scarp, a low bank or edge marking the boundary of the enclosed area, rises no more than 0.6 metres at its tallest point on the southern arc. The northern half has been worn almost entirely flat, and the interior sits at roughly the same level as the surrounding ground. A post and wire fence now cuts straight across the middle of it.

Enclosures of this type, roughly circular areas bounded by a bank and sometimes a ditch, are among the most common archaeological monuments in Ireland, and were used across a very long stretch of prehistory and into the early medieval period for purposes ranging from settlement to livestock management to ritual activity. What is quietly interesting about the Cloonboorhy example is its near-invisibility. It does not appear on the Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, the standard nineteenth-century baseline for recording such features across the country, which suggests it was either too eroded to catch a surveyor's eye or was overlooked entirely. The site sits on a low rise near the western edge of a broad terrace, with a steeply rising slope to the east and a fall of ground to the west, looking out over a flat stretch of damp ground below. It is a considered position, one that would have offered both visibility and some natural drainage, even if the enclosure itself has since sunk almost entirely back into the field.

What remains is mostly legible on the southern half, where the scarp retains a slight internal lip in places and a broader rise on the western side. A field boundary runs up to the enclosure from the north, and a low undulation extending eastward from the south-west edge may be the remnant of another. The enclosure has been partly absorbed into the working landscape around it, which is itself part of what makes it worth attention.

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, Cloonboorhy, 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