Mound, Bekan, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Mound, Bekan, Co. Mayo

In a pasture field near Bekan in County Mayo, a low circular mound sits on a gentle south-westerly slope, overlooking stretches of boggy lowland that fall away on either side.

Nothing about it announces itself loudly. It is roughly eleven and a half metres across, its edge defined by a scarp barely twenty centimetres high, and across its centre runs an oblong, sod-covered stony rise that reaches no more than sixty-five centimetres at its tallest point. A single large slab protrudes from the turf near its southern end. It is the kind of feature that most walkers would step over without a second thought.

What makes this mound genuinely puzzling is its absence from the historical record. Neither the 1838 nor the 1917 Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, which together mapped Ireland's landscape in considerable detail across nearly a century, show any trace of it. That omission raises more questions than it answers. Was the mound already so low and grass-covered by the nineteenth century that surveyors overlooked it entirely, or does its origin post-date both surveys? The structure itself offers conflicting clues. The circular platform and the stony rise beneath the sod could point to something considerably older, perhaps a burial cairn or a platform monument, while a small stone feature at the southern end of the rise, roughly coursed and about a metre high, appears to be of modern construction. A graveyard extension lies just twelve metres to the west, which may or may not be coincidental. The single protruding slab near the base of that newer cairn adds a further layer of ambiguity: it could be a placed marker, a glacial erratic, or a fragment of something earlier disturbed and partially reburied.

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 Mound, Bekan, 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