Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

about 6m by 4m incorporating a number of large stone slabs. Eleven house sites are associated with
the fields.
The field system with a total length of 4.7kms of walls is mainly rectilinear with a dominant N – S
alignment and walls mostly 130m to 150m apart. Field size varies from 3 ha for that incorporating
Ma107 to 1.4 ha for the field west of that. The southern boundary of these two fields is formed by a
wall that runs in a sinuous Southwest to Northeast direction for about 500m and the turns sharply
northwards. From the Southwest it runs into the South end of the tomb cairn and continues from
midway on the East of the cairn. The staggered nature of the junction of this wall with the N – S wall
west of the tomb suggests the latter was built subsequently to the sinuous wall.
The Rathlackan tomb has a D-shaped enclosure wall, 20m by 20m, attached to the N side of the
cairn, in which there was a small square house H13 (Figure 10). Just 200m to the east another small
3m diameter round house, Beltra H16 (Figure 18), is within a curvilinear enclosure 70m by 40m at
the end of a field wall. Further to the North at site D a curvilinear wall may have been a complete
enclosure as a modern road runs along the west side. Incorporated into this wall are two orthostatic
jambs, 0.9m to 1.0m apart and 1.25m high from the sub peat ground level, support a large lintel
stone 2.2m by 1.0m and up to 0.3m thick. This is referred to as ‘Queen’s Grave’ by Aldridge (1961,
86). It is clearly part of the wall making an elaborate entrance although there are a lot of stones
around the structure covered by peat, giving the possibility it may have been part of some other
structure.
Seefin
‘Seefin’ hill includes parts of Carrowkibbock Upper, Rathoonagh, Ballinglen, Aghaleague,
Carrowcuilleen and Annaghmore townlands (Figure 4). It is a steep sided flat topped hill 237m high.
The very steep west slopes are mostly peat free or have been reclaimed as are the lower slopes on
the east side while the less steep northern spur has mostly cutaway peat. Elsewhere there are large
tracts of uncut peat on much of the ridge top while the East and South sides are a chequer board of
old turf banks often over 2m high.
A total length of 5.6kms of walls were located on all areas of the hill (Figure 4) but a more extensive
probing operation would undoubtedly reveal a more complete pattern in areas of deep peat. On the
N slope there are two broadly parallel meandering walls, varying from 100m to 200m apart, running
upslope with some offset cross walls. On the S end a straight wall almost 700m long, but with a gap
in the middle where it has not been probed, maintains a straight course regardless of topography,
the S section running up the steep slope and the N end following the contour. On either side of this
two straight offset cross walls, all between 110m to 150m long, may indicate a more regular pattern
of walls. Elsewhere the walls do not have a distinct pattern but many continue under uncut peat and
have not been probed further. No major area of the hill is devoid of walls and the general indication
is of larger rather than small fields.
A circular enclosure 40m d. is located on a fairly level terrace at a height of 150m on the N hillside.
420m upslope from it at a height of 185m a house site, Carrowkibbock Upper H20 (Figure 19), is
attached to the end of a field wall. There are two court tombs on the hill, Carrowkibbock Upper
Ma108 on the N side and Ballinglen Ma121 at the end of a field wall on the South slope.
146