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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Enclosure

Carrowkeel (Tirawley By., Crossmolina. Par.), County Mayo, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Enclosure, Carrowkeel (Tirawley By., Crossmolina. Par.), County Mayo, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Carrowkeel (Tirawley By., Crossmolina. Par.)
County
Mayo
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
54.09479, -9.38159
SMR number
MA038-004002-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a low natural rise or hillock with a southerly aspect, underlying a rath (MA038-004----). In 2002-3 an excavation (02E0598) was carried out on the northern half of the rath in advance of road construction (Zajac 2011). It revealed evidence of an enclosure defined by a narrow fosse, which predated the construction of the rath. The fosse (Wth 0.6-1m at top; D 0.4-0.8m) underlay the later rath bank, and was traced in an arc W–NE. It varied in profile from U-shaped to V-shaped, and appeared too shallow and insubstantial to be defensive in nature. It is thought to be pre-historic in date, most likely associated with a Neolithic habitation site (MA038-004001-), which underlay the rath. The enclosed space may even have had a ceremonial or ritual dimension (ibid. 338).
Part of the enclosure, extended beyond the road take and remains unexcavated, underlying the S side of the rath. (Zajac 2011).

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 23 July 2019

References

Zajak, S. 2011 Excavations of a ringfort at Carrowkeel, Co. Mayo. In C. Corlett and M. Potterton (eds) Settlement in Early Medieval Ireland in the Light of Recent Archaeological Excavations. Research Papers in Irish Archaeology, 3, 331-343. Bray: Wordwell.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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