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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Bunacrower, County Mayo, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Bunacrower, 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
Bunacrower
County
Mayo
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.61895, -9.12778
SMR number
MA118-171----

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

In the SE corner of a pasture field, located in gently rolling terrain.
This rath is not shown on any edition of the OS 6-inch maps. Slightly raised D-shaped area (39m E−W; 29.5m N−S to field wall) defined on the curving side at SW−SE by low bank (Wth 2m at W, 2.5m at E; int. H 0.1-0.25m; ext. H 0.3m at W, 0.75m at E) and on the straight side to S by an E−W field wall, which forms the S boundary of the modern field. The enclosing bank is reduced almost to a scarp at W and to a low undulation for sections at NW-N. The best preserved section is on the E arc, where the external slope is enhanced by a natural dip in ground level. The rath must originally have been oval or circular, but the S arc (to S of the E−W field wall) has been levelled.
A gap (Wth 3m) at E may be an original entrance. The interior is flat, featureless and grassy.
There is a subcircular quarry pit (diam. c. 10m; D 1.5m) 3m to W of the rath, now partly concealed by hawthorn trees and overgrowth. A roughly N−S length of stony bank (Wth c. 1.7m; H 0.3m) extends between the quarry pit and the E−W property wall at S; this appears to be a remnant of a field wall, probably of later date than the rath; the gap between it and the rath bank varies between 2.5-3m.
Another oval quarry pit (8m NW−SE; 5.5m NE−SW; D 1.4m) is located immediately to NE of the rath.
There is a rath (MA118-045----) 150m to WNW

Attached images:
MA118-171----_01.JPG Viewed from N
MA118-171----_02.JPG Viewed from NE
MA118-171----_03. JPG Entrance, viewed from NE

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 19 March 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
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