TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - cashel

Cappagh (Costello By.), County Mayo, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - cashel, Cappagh, 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
Cappagh (Costello By.)
County
Mayo
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.83577, -8.77051
SMR number
MA082-018----

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 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1857 · Ireland (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

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

The National Monuments Service's description

In a stand of trees, with a farmstead immediately to NW, located on a gentle elevation with a fall of ground to NE.
Shown on the 1838 OS 6-inch map and the later 25-inch plan as a circular embanked enclosure; an irregular-shaped field planted with trees is shown on the 1916 edition.
The dilapidated remnants of a roughly circular enclosure (31m NE–SW; c. 30m NW–SE) can be traced. It is incorporated into a system of field walls and now serves as a garden field attached to a modern farmstead.
The perimeter on the E half is defined by remnants of a wall, barely discernible at N–NNE and evident at NE–S as a broad, low stony rise (Wth 2.6m). Large stones, protruding in parts, probably represent the basal course of a wall. It is uncertain to what extent these remains represent the ruins of an original enclosing wall or a later wall built when the enclosure was incorporated into the farmstead. Field walls abut or radiate from it at N, NE, E and SE. The enclosing wall cannot be traced on the W half: Here a straight field wall, on a NW–SE axis, clips the SW edge and a N–S farm track appears to truncate the perimeter at W–NW. There is a marked drop in interior ground level in the N−NW quadrant. According to local tradition, there was a souterrain (MA082-018002-) in the ringfort.
Interior has an uneven surface covered with long grass and thistles; a few sycamore trees grow in the lower NW quadrant, with a concentration of stones at their base. The perimeter of the enclosure is ringed with sycamores trees. There is an enclosure (MA082-019----) 155m to S, a court tomb (MA082-017----) 285m to W and a standing stone (MA082-062----) 230m to WMW.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 20 December 2021

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
See your own family's places on a living map