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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Ballyhowly, County Mayo, Ireland

The record

Townland
Ballyhowly
County
Mayo
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Breens Fort
Latest-edition OS map
Breens Fort
Coordinates
53.78482, -8.93082
SMR number
MA092-021----

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

David 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).

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The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, located on the gentle S–facing slope of a ridge. There are excellent views to S but rising ground restricts views northward.
Low circular platform (diam. c. 36m) defined by a scarp (H 0.55m), outside which it is enclosed by a fosse (Wth 2.2m) with an external bank (Wth c. 3.2m at N, c. 5m at S; int. H 1.5m at N, 0.7m at S; ext. H 0.2m at N, 1.6m at S). The rath appears to be built up on its S half to compensate for the natural slope, and the external bank has a markedly broad, external slump on its downslope S side.
A large part of the rath interior has been quarried out. A crescent-shaped strip (Wth c. 9m NE−SW) remains intact at NW–E, but elsewhere the interior is reduced to a stone-strewn area of pits and hollows, interspersed with mounds of quarry material. A concentration of large stones and prostrate slabs are scattered in the SW quadrant. The fosse is partly filled with quarry material and field clearance debris, and a section of the external bank is partly levelled or truncated at SW–NW. The rath entrance may have been to SE where there may be a causeway across the fosse, but dumps of displaced material make it difficult to confirm this.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 23 February 2022

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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