Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

There is no clear pattern to the distribution of the house sites. Three are within enclosures, the small
H13 and H16 in Rathlackan and the larger H7 on Carrowmore while a fourth, H14 in Rathlackan has a
curving wall to the west that might have been the remains of an enclosure (Figure 2). The 40m wide
circular enclosure on Seefin had no visible house but the existence of a structure under the 1m
depth of peat cannot be excluded.
Some houses are clustered together – H9 and H10 on Carrowmore are 10m apart although in
separate fields. In Rathlackan H17 and H18 round houses are also 10m apart, H3 H4 and H5 are in a
38m long row while H14, H15 and H16 are all within 50m of each other.
The majority are sited on flat land but the H17 and H18 pair and H7 and H8 are all terraced into
sloping ground. Of the six on Carrowmore four are on the terraced slopes and only two on the more
exposed higher ground.
Megalithic Monuments
A variety of megalithic monuments are located within the field system areas and many can be
directly related to the walls.
The Carrowmore – Rathlackan area has the greatest number and variety, including six court tombs,
three wedge tombs, a round cairn plus three other possible or unclassified sites (Figure 2). The six
court tombs are all on the lower plateau area. The pair of Lecarrowntemple sites, Ma16 and Ma17,
are in a peat free area and the furthest from the walls although there are uncertain remains about
400m to the North of them. Doonadoba Ma122 is also on peat free land on the lower slopes of the
Carrowmore hill. Castletown Ma109 has a long gallery with imbricated sides aligned N – S directly on
the line of a field wall. It is likely the wall continued towards the tomb but the land in the immediate
vicinity had been ploughed and reclaimed. The Castletown Ma107 site is a possible dual court tomb
aligned NNW – SSE and has a field wall directly connected. At the South end of the cairn the wall
joins at an aligned long regular set stone and the wall continues from midway on the east side of the
cairn. The Rathlackan tomb has the enclosure wall surrounding H13 attached to the North side of
the cairn.
Of the three wedge tombs Creevagh Ma120 is on peat free land to the east. Carrowmacshane
Ma126 is in very shallow peat and only a short stretch of uncertain wall was found close to the
tomb. While this might indicate robbing of the walls to construct the tomb the third wedge tomb
Carrowmore Ma125 has very well preserved walls close by including a curving wall less than 10m to
the E. To the N of the tomb the land had been reclaimed.
The Knockboha Site B round cairn (21.5m diameter and 3.5m high) is prominently sited on the East
shoulder of the hill overlooking the Rathlackan plateau but gradually rising ground restricts visibility
westwards. While it does not have any definite field walls within 300m the mature coniferous
forestry immediately to the South prevented any search and to the East the ground drops very
steeply to peat free land. The absence of walls to the N and W could possibly be explained as due to
robbing for the cairn.
Carrowmore Site A, sited just 50m from the highest point on the hill is a largely concealed uneven
cairn about 13m N – S by 10m E – W with the corner of a very large horizontal slab at least 2m long
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