Ringfort (Rath), Pollaweela, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Ringforts
On a natural rise above a bend in the River Robe in County Mayo, a roughly oval earthwork sits quietly in pasture, its grassy interior ringed with hawthorn and gorse.
What makes this rath, as ringforts of earthen construction are often called, quietly unusual is the degree to which the landscape has done much of the work. The subcircular enclosure measures approximately 40.8 metres north to south and 46.3 metres east to west, but its apparent shape and the gentle internal slope are largely products of the natural contours of the rise rather than purely human engineering. The interior only reads as elevated above the surrounding ground on its northern arc, where the exterior terrain naturally dips away.
The monument follows the standard ringfort formula: an earthen bank, a fosse or outer ditch, and traces of a counterscarp, the low outer bank that sometimes accompanied such ditches to add a further line of definition. The fosse here is shallow and flat-based, about two metres wide, with a low earth and stone rise along its outer edge that may represent the remnants of that counterscarp. The main bank is best preserved on the northern and southern arcs, where its external height reaches 1.25 to 1.5 metres, and is reduced to little more than a scarp on the northwest. The largest gap in the bank, roughly two metres wide, sits at the northeast and likely marks the original entrance. Local tradition holds that a souterrain, an underground passage sometimes used for storage or refuge, and a children's burial ground are located within the interior, though neither leaves any visible trace on the surface today. Children's burial grounds of this kind, sometimes called cillíní, were typically used for unbaptised infants, occupying a space outside consecrated ground and often attached to older, pre-Christian sites.
The rath's position was clearly chosen with awareness of its surroundings. The views along the River Robe valley open out to the southwest and west, with the Partry Mountains on the far horizon and, on a clear day, the distinctive cone of Croagh Patrick visible to the northwest. Whether that prospect mattered to whoever enclosed this rise many centuries ago is impossible to say, but the site makes its orientation felt.
