A midden is, at its simplest, an ancient refuse heap, the accumulated debris of daily life: shells, animal bone, ash, broken tools, and domestic waste discarded over generations. Where they survive, middens act as slow-motion records of how people ate, what they gathered, and how they lived close to coastlines or waterways. The fact that one has been formally recorded here, in this corner of Mayo, is a small but telling sign that this ground was once well used by human hands.