Moated site, Corimla South, Co. Mayo
Along a gentle bend in the Brusna River in County Mayo sits a remarkable medieval earthwork that once served as a moated site.
Moated site, Corimla South, Co. Mayo
This rectangular platform, measuring roughly 28 metres northeast to southwest and 60 metres northwest to southeast, occupies a strategic position on level pasture ground. The site commands excellent views along the shallow river valley whilst being sheltered by gently rising ground on either side. Its northeastern corner comes remarkably close to the river itself, sitting just four metres from where the ground drops steeply to the water’s edge.
The earthwork’s most impressive feature is its substantial inner bank, constructed from hard-packed gravelly soil and still standing up to two metres high in places. Best preserved along the southeastern third of the site, this defensive bank originally enclosed the entire platform, though time has reduced portions of it to a well-defined scarp on the northwestern and northeastern sides. A broad, flat-bottomed fosse or defensive ditch, three metres wide and up to 1.5 metres deep, runs around the outside of this inner bank, with remnants of an outer bank still visible in sections, particularly at the southern corner and along the southwestern side.
Today, the interior of the platform remains level and featureless, covered in grass with a stand of blackthorn taking root in the southeastern quadrant. An eroded break in the southern section of the inner bank may mark an original entrance point. Intriguingly, this site appears to have been part of a larger defensive landscape; another enclosure sits directly across the river, 120 metres to the southwest on a prominent rise, suggesting these fortifications may have worked in tandem to control this stretch of the Brusna valley during medieval times.





