This is the Slievemore Deserted Village, one of the largest and most atmospheric abandoned settlements in Ireland, and the cluster of structures associated with it represents centuries of layered habitation on a mountain that has been occupied, in various forms, since the prehistoric period.

The settlement is closely associated with the practice of booleying, a seasonal form of transhumance in which communities moved their cattle to upland pastures in summer, living temporarily in the higher ground before returning to lower winter quarters closer to the shore. The Slievemore community is thought to have practised this well into the nineteenth century, with families maintaining homes both here and at Dooagh and Dugort on the coast below. The Great Famine of the 1840s effectively ended that cycle, and the village was largely abandoned in the years that followed, leaving behind a striking grid of dry-stone walls, house plots, and enclosures that have remained remarkably intact. Earlier remains in the surrounding landscape, including megalithic tombs and middens, suggest the slope was already a significant place long before the post-medieval cottages were built.

The village sits above the road that runs along Achill's northern coast, and is accessible on foot from a small parking area nearby. The cottages themselves are open to the sky, their gables still standing to considerable height in places, and the surrounding field systems help convey the scale of what was once a functioning community. The mountain behind offers a broader context, with prehistoric features visible to those willing to walk further up the slope.