Cairn, Carrowcanada, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Cairns
A low spread of loose stones sitting in a Mayo pasture, this cairn at Carrowcanada was recorded from the air before anyone had properly looked at it on the ground, which meant it spent years filed under the vague category of "mound" before closer inspection revealed what it actually was.
Or, more precisely, what it might be.
Measuring roughly 7.6 metres east to west and about 7 metres north to south, the cairn rises from around half a metre at its eastern edge to a full metre at the west. The stones are mostly small, though larger boulders appear around the perimeter, and the whole structure slopes gently downward from south to north, following the natural incline of the rise on which it sits. It was catalogued as a mound in both the 1991 Sites and Monuments Record and the 1996 Record of Monuments and Places, classifications based on an aerial photograph rather than fieldwork. On the ground, the loose, irregular character of the stones points toward a more mundane origin: this may simply be a field clearance cairn, the kind of accumulation farmers have produced for generations by gathering surface stones off agricultural land and heaping them to one side. That "may be" carries some weight, though. Without excavation, the question stays open. Thirty-five metres to the south-west lies a rath, a type of enclosed farmstead common in early medieval Ireland, typically defined by a raised earthen bank enclosing a circular area. The proximity is noted, though what connection, if any, exists between the two features remains unresolved.