House - indeterminate date, Bunnamohaun, Co. Mayo

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House

House – indeterminate date, Bunnamohaun, Co. Mayo

On the commonage at the far western tip of Clare Island, Co. Mayo, a house has almost entirely returned to the ground.

What remains is little more than a low outline of large stones and slabs pressed into the turf, the highest of them reaching only 25 centimetres above the grass. Nobody knows when it was built or by whom, and that anonymity is part of what makes it quietly arresting. The structure sits tucked against the foot of a small hummock, sheltered on the upslope side, and looks out over Loughanaphuca, the small lake immediately to its south.

The plan is roughly D-shaped, measuring about 6.5 metres along its longer axis and 3.7 metres across. The flat, straight edge of the D runs along the south-south-eastern side, where an external wall face can be traced for nearly three metres before curving around to define the west-south-western side, then fading out as it climbs toward the slope behind. The stones, some of them set upright on edge as slabs, are not uniformly touching; small gaps between them may simply be the result of centuries of grass growing up around and between them. The eastern end is considerably harder to read, its stones more scattered, some of them slumped downslope beyond the building's original footprint. There is at least one large boulder embedded in the ground at the northern side, and a possible short run of facing stones to the north-north-east. No entrance is clearly preserved, though there is a suggestion of a gap near the south-eastern corner. The interior slopes gently from north to south, largely smooth beneath the sod, with only a few small stones lying flush with the surface.

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Pete F
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