Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Fortification
Illanee Island, County Mayo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Illanee Island
- County
- Mayo
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Illanee
- Latest-edition OS map
- Illanee
- Coordinates
- 53.96516, -9.18812
- SMR number
- MA060-010----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
This enclosure is situated at the SW end of Illanee or Garrison Island, in Lough Cullen c. 250m from its W shore. It consists of an impressive cashel-like monument (26m N-S; c. 24m E-W internally) built with stones bonded in mortar. Much of the mortar has eroded resulting in significant collapse of the enclosing walls in places. A possible two-roomed house is located in the NE quadrant of the enclosure and a small D-shaped hut abuts its SE gable. An entrance at the NW opens onto a rectangular berth for the mooring of boats: this now stands on dry land as the lake level was lowered in 1965. The monument has been identified by Naessens and O’Conor as a possible pre-Norman fortification dating to the eleventh- / twelfth century (2012, 119-121).
Compiled by: Paul Walsh
Date of upload: 18 April 2017
References
Naessens, P. and O'Conor, K. 2012 Pre-Norman fortification in eleventh- and twelfth-century Connacht. In Chateau Gaillard 25, 113-22.
Nearby in the register
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.