Enclosure, Towerhill Demesne, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Enclosures
On the grounds of Towerhill Demesne in County Mayo, there is an archaeological site that no longer exists above ground.
A circular enclosure, the kind of feature that might once have defined a farmstead, a ritual space, or a boundary of some forgotten significance, was recorded on an Ordnance Survey map as recently as 1931. By the time anyone thought to look more carefully, it had been levelled into the surrounding pasture, leaving no visible surface trace whatsoever. The land was reclaimed, and whatever the enclosure once enclosed is now simply field.
Circular enclosures are among the most common, and most quietly erased, features of the Irish archaeological landscape. They range in date and function from prehistoric ring forts, known as raths or ringforts, which served as enclosed farmsteads for early medieval families, to later enclosures of less certain purpose. Without excavation it is rarely possible to say what a particular example was for. What the 1931 OS map confirms is that this one survived long enough to be recorded cartographically, which means it had some legible form on the ground within living memory of the mid-twentieth century. The demesne setting at Towerhill suggests the enclosure may have persisted simply because demesne land, maintained for the purposes of a country estate, was sometimes less aggressively farmed than surrounding ground, at least until land use patterns shifted.
There is nothing to see at this site today. The notes are unambiguous on that point. It exists now only as a map reference and a catalogue entry, a place that is archaeologically present and physically absent at the same time.