Field system

The National Monuments Service's description

In undulating upland pasture, in the Bricklieve Mountains. A system of field walls, covering an area c. 500m x 300m, defines irregular and subrectangular fields adapted to the natural contours of the ridge slopes and the bedding planes of the limestone outcrop. The fields mostly hug the E-facing slopes overlooking a flat valley which contains a small lake, Lough Gowra. Within the field system is a cluster of cashels (SL040-064001-; SL040-068001-; SL040-071001-), a possible cashel (SL040-070001-), a rath (SL040-069----), a possible rath (SL040-233----), an enclosure (SL040-071002-), two cairns (SL040-066----; SL040-212----), two hut sites (SL040-063002-; SL040-063003-) and a kerb circle (SL040-072----). The field system is visible in aerial photographs (CUCAP, AVI 74-8) taken in 1968 but is now difficult to trace on the ground. A portion of it, including two possible hut sites (SL040-063002-; SL040-063003-), in the area between the cashel (SL040-068001-) and the rath (SL040-069----) has been levelled. Elsewhere the walls survive as fragmented stretches of low sod-covered jumbles of stones (Wth c. 1m). There is a hut site (SL040-065----) within the N end of the field system. The sod-covered foundations of a number of rectangular houses (L c. 8-11m; Wth 2.8-5.2m), probably of 18th or 19th-century date, are also within the field system.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).

Date of upload: 18 January 2008