Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

The Belderg More survey mapped a series of irregular walls on the summit and in the unenclosed
commonage to the northeast and north of the modern enclosed farmland. The top of the hill is
enclosed within an irregular but mainly contour wall. At the southwest there may be a hint of two or
more walls more or less parallel to the enclosure but as these terminate in the modern farmland it is
not possible to say if these parallels were extensive or if the parallel contour strips were repeated
further down slope towards the river in the valley bottom. To the north the walls have a more
rectilinear pattern and in this area Radiocarbon dates for pine trees growing in one case on top of a
wall and in another on 30cm of peat beside a pre-bog wall have given the earliest dates (4580+60
BP; 4480+60 BP). One long and relatively straight wall runs downslope towards Belderrig harbour
where it runs into the most northerly modern enclosed field. Just to the north of this field the
Warren excavation of the Belderg More Mesolithic site has uncovered a further stretch of pre-bog
walling. This wall is probably contemporary with if not part of the main complex of walls for which
the early dates have been obtained. A kilometre further to the east , prebog walls have been
surveyed in an area of turbary. The walls do not display a regular pattern. A Radiocarbon date of
4010+60 for a pine stump growing in peat 50cm above the mineral soil was 55 metres from a
junction of two walls which are likely to be contemporary with the fourth millennium BC walls in
Belderrig to the west and Céide Fields to the east.
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