Shedding light on Mayo's ancient past

Well-known archaeologist Michael Gibbons will talk to Westport Civic Trust about ‘New Research Findings in the Uplands and Islands of County Mayo’ at 8pm this evening, Tuesday, November 14, in the Plaza Hotel, Westport.

Mr Gibbons says that discoveries made in the last few years relate to every period of human settlement from the Mesolithic through the Bronze and Iron Ages to the nineteenth century.

The Mesolithic lifestyle (6,000 and 10,000 years ago) was based around small bands of seasonally migrating hunter-gatherers – moving up and down the river systems between seasonal base camps. New finds on the islands of Inishbofin and Inis Gort, both of which were part of Co Mayo until the 1870s, date back about 7,000 years with additional Mesolithic material in Belderrig, Urlaur, Lough Lannagh.

Neolithic colonists from Britain and France from 5,000 years ago transformed the landscape of Mayo, introducing the first field systems and the first monumental architecture. A number of Neolithic mountain-top tombs have recently been identified - including spectacular examples in the Nephin Beg mountains to the northeast of Newport and another on the Corraun Peninsula. Peat erosion at an already-known site to the north of Lochan na Sí in the Partry Mountains overlooking Tourmakeady has revealed several previously unseen panels of mysterious Neolithic rock art.

During the Bronze Age, 2,500 BC to 500 BC, the first examples of metalworking began to appear in Mayo, introduced by a third wave of settlers arriving in Ireland from the steppes of Eastern Europe. A wide range of Bronze Age monuments have been discovered in recent years. On Inishkea North, off the Mullet Peninsula, a field system that had first been drowned by bog before being inundated by rising sea levels had been identified several years ago and additional sections of this network continue to emerge as sea level rise and coastal erosion impact the low-lying island. Fieldwork has also revealed ongoing damage from storm surges to a series of important fortresses dating from the late Bronze Age on Achill Beg. Other early farmsteads have been discovered on the western slopes of Mweelrea and a very important Hillfort in the mountains of Joyce Country to the north of Finney. In Joyce Country, a number of Bronze Age Stone alignments have also been identified.

A number of stone and earthen forts from the Early Christian period (c.400AD-900AD) have been found in the Barony of Murrisk, southwest of Croagh Patrick, and on the slopes of the Nephin Beg Range. Booleying, the seasonal movement of herds of cattle between summer and winter pastures, has been a component of Irish agriculture from the beginning of recorded history and a large number of Booley sites have been recognised throughout the mountains of the Ballycroy National Park and in both the Sheeffrey and Partry Mountains.

Between the 17th and early 20th centuries, the farming of seaweed or 'kelp' was a major component of the coastal economy. This peaked in the 'Kelp Age', a period of intense activity at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and discoveries of artificial “Kelp Grids,” dating from post-1750 onwards, continue to be made in the sheltered waters of Blacksod and Clew Bays.

The continuing practice of Christianity has for a millennium and a half left a range of monuments, many still in use, scattered across the countryside. A funeral route containing 40-plus cairns has been identified in the southern part of Achill Island, crossing the mountains from west to east. On Inishturk Island, a Mass rock and the grave of an anonymous sailor lost in the Atlantic during the Great War were shown to the author by islanders sharing their vast knowledge of the island’s history. Other intriguing discoveries have been made on Oilean Mionnan, a cliff-bound island in Northwest Erris.

Michael Gibbons is a member of the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland with 40 years of experience as a field archaeologist. He has served on the Archaeology Committee of the Heritage Council. He has worked with the Department of Antiquities in Jerusalem and for the Museum of London City Excavation Programme. In Ireland, he has worked on the Donegal and Galway Archaeological Surveys and the National Sites and Monuments Record in the Office of Public Works. He has also directed surveys on Croagh Patrick and other pilgrimage landscapes as well as mapping the uplands, intertidal areas, and islands of the Connacht coast.

Michael is currently working as an archaeological consultant exploring the landscape and archaeology of the west coast.