This intriguing claim comes from historical records describing the house of Mac Consava, which was burnt by O’Donnell in 1530. The Mac Consava family, whose name was later anglicised to Forde in the 17th century, clearly held considerable status if their dwelling attracted such superlative descriptions in contemporary accounts.

The earthwork itself forms a substantial rectangular enclosure measuring roughly 38 to 40 metres east to west and 34 metres north to south. An earthen bank, three metres wide and rising to different heights on its interior and exterior faces, defines the perimeter. Outside this bank runs a defensive fosse or ditch, particularly waterlogged on the southern side, which would have provided additional protection to whatever structures stood within. Curiously, no entrance is visible today, though a castle structure built immediately outside the northern bank near the northwest corner has obscured the fosse in that area.

Whether this really was the site of Mac Consava’s celebrated wooden house remains uncertain, but the earthwork’s prominent position overlooking Lough Allen and its substantial defensive features suggest it protected something of considerable importance. The combination of natural defences provided by the peninsula setting and the constructed earthen ramparts would have created a formidable stronghold in medieval Leitrim, worthy of the prominent family who may have called it home before its destruction in the tumultuous politics of 16th century Ireland.