TOWER-HOUSES AND ASSOCIATED

FARMING SYSTEMS
In this contribution to the Know Your Monuments series, Muiris O'Sullivan and Liam Downey
outline the main characteristics of tower-houses, followed by an overview of the systems of
mixed farmingassociated with those settlements.
integrated

Tower-houses are small, majority seem to have been erected most concentrated in counties Tipperary
single
towered castles, three, four or five between c. 1450 and 1620. Many, however, and Kilkenny (the earldom of Ormond),
storeys in height and usually quite were built before the mid- 1450s, and some County Westmeath (Old English/Gaelic
simple in plan. They are the most visible before the end of the 1300s (Bradley and marchlands) and in south Galway, east

medieval secular buildings in the modern Murtagh 2003). Clare and Limerick (Old English/Gaelic
landscape. As many as 3,500 were built The areas with the highest lordships). Relatively few are found in the
across the country in the medieval concentration of tower-houses are those northern and south-western areas of the
period,
making Ireland by the 1600s the most that experienced the greatest level of country.

heavily castellated part of these islands instability and changes in landownership,

(Fig. 1). They are similar to the broadly with, as discussed below, the more
Layout
contemporary peel towers built along the productive farmland being strongly Tower-houses were self-contained

Anglo-Scottish border (Sweetman 2000). favoured. Although many tower-houses residences, with rooms stacked vertically
were constructed and connected by winding stairs. The
by Anglo-Normans, they

Origins and locations became very popular in Gaelic areas in the ground-floor room was poorly lit and

Tower-houses were the defended later Middle and more served as a store or cellar. It
typically Ages, widespread. usually
residences of The are located south of a line had a vaulted a feature
wealthy Anglo majority frequently ceiling,

Norman/English and Gaelic families. The from Galway to Louth (Fig. 2). They are sometimes also found on other floors.

34 Archaeology Ireland Summer 2009

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 Ireland during the 1600s observed that Excavations at Bremore Castle, Co.

They have little furniture and cover their Dublin, by Fin?la O'Carroll of CRDS Ltd
""v rooms with rushes ...', and that 'When you confirmed that the nearby area was used
'
?nter ?nf*-.?.*"%?'?ij?.v"?i''?' 'y?."*^4-
^j?l^ .^a^^^HflHSSHi
come to yor. chamber, do not expect for agricultural purposes from the medieval

canopy and curtaines'. period (O'Carroll, forthcoming). Among

Tower-houses were, as already indicated, the features uncovered were field drains,
defended residences; although not built to possible plough furrows,pits and boundary
withstand a prolonged siege, many ditches. One of the pits, which produced
have medieval sherds, may have been a
surviving examples important pottery
defensive features such as former manure heap. Others could have
double-stepped
battlements, machicolations over been used as wells or cisterns to hold the

doorways, slit windows at lower levels and water required for farming. Charred grain
murder holes at the entrance lobby. In some found within the furrows included wheat,
grooves can be seen where a yett and oats as well as which
examples, barley legumes,
(iron grill) could be pulled across in frontof may have been part of the crop rotation

the main door, which was always at ground system employed. The layout of the field
level. From the late 1500s onwards, loops system suggests that it was part of a larger
for guns became more common. The pattern of fields associated with laneways,
number of corner turrets varies, but one? at least one of which widened out into a

above the stair?was sometimes area.

usually yard-like
than the others. A second turret Information on the of
higher composition
often the garderobe
contained or toilet. The agriculture in medieval Ireland is limited.

roofs of tower-houses were slated, and some Mixed farming, with cereal-growing
were thatched. Roofs of stone slats, oak predominant, seems to have been

timbers or shingles were also known. in the south-eastern and central

prevalent

Although often standing isolated today, regions of the country (Jager 1983). Within
Fig. 1?(a) Tower-house at Drishane and (b)
most tower-houses were enclosed, a short between c. 1200
originally relatively period
an unusually at Blarney, both
large example and and with the
at least partially, by a bawn or walled 1300, coinciding
in County Cork (courtesy of Dr Colin Rynne).
courtyard that sometimes had towers at the maximum expansion of the Anglo-Norman
corners. Located within the bawn would colonisation, these regions seem to have

have been the ancillary domestic an increase in tillage said to be

buildings, experienced
as well as the for comparable with that of the main
buildings required
of areas. At that
agriculture?a predominant occupation European cereal-growing
Wicker mats were generally used in the many tower-house landowners. time, up to 70-75% of the utilised land in
preparation of the vaulting, and the south-eastern and central parts of

of these can often still be seen Ireland was devoted to arable

impressions Agriculture seemingly
in the mortar on the underside of the Tower-houses occur in medieval towns and farming. As further detailed by Jager
vaultings. villages, but the bulk are dispersed (1983), however, the area of arable

The rooms were the In many production began to contract by the end of
principal generally throughout countryside.
located in the upper storeys. were instances the wealth to support the 1200s, with the incursion of the native
They required
better lit, with larger ogee-headed windows their occupants was generated mainly from Irish into many Anglo-Norman-dominated
and with stone for the The close link between tower areas of cultivated land. In the Pale,
punch-dressed farming.
jambs. tower-houses as houses in Ireland and is reflected however, was still dominant in the
Many originally agriculture tillage
built had no regular fireplaces. One or more in their location, which corresponds in 1600s.
were at a later date, usually
often inserted at large measure to what is known today to be The recent comprehensive Medieval

the expense of some windows. Where the most productive farmland in the Rural Settlement Project undertaken by the
evidence for fireplaces remains, it is usually country. As shown in Fig. 2, high Discovery Programme substantiates the

to be found on the upper floors. The concentrations occur in dominance of arable farming in the wider
Tipperary,
interiors of the rooms were usually Kilkenny, Cork and Limerick. Compared to Dublin region during themedieval period
whitewashed or plastered, and evidence for the neighbouring counties of Dublin, (Murphy and Potterton, forthcoming).
this remains at many sites around the Kildare, Carlow and Wexford, fewer tower Analysis of surviving manorial documents

country. houses are found in the mountainous providing land-use data from more than

The in tower-houses, Wicklow. While considerations of manors in the Dublin

living conditions County twenty region
at least in some instances, seem to have security, among other issues, influenced showed that the acreage of arable

been less than comfortable. As further their location, areas amounted to almost three
unproductive farming production
detailed by Leask (1986), some travellers in were generally not favoured. quarters (74%) of the total demesne land

Archaeology Ireland Summer 2009 35

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used in the area (Fig. 3), with some manors Tower-houses
having almost their entire (over 90%)
farmland in tillage. Conversely, the Definite
proportion of the land devoted to pasture Possible
(13%), and hence available for livestock
production, was shown to be unexpectedly

low. Analysis of later data recorded in the

Civil Survey in the 1650s revealed a similar
relative land-use pattern. Again, arable
was shown to be the
production
land use, averaging close on
predominant
three quarters (74%) of all the farmland
across the Dublin region (Fig. 3) and
accounting forvirtually the total farmland
(over 90%) in some places. The proportion
of the farmland devoted to pasture was
strikingly low (14%) and similar to the
level derived from the analysis of the data
from around 1300.

The
remarkable similarities found by
Murphy and Potterton (forthcoming) in
the proportions of farmland in the Dublin
region devoted to the different land uses
between 1300 and 1650 (Fig. 3) does not
imply that therewas littleor no change in
the composition of agricultural production
in the over the As
region 350-year period.

previously mentioned, tillage production

in the south-eastern and central areas of

Ireland seems to have reached a maximum

around 1300 and then declined. Jager

(1983) reportedno such contraction within
the Pale. By 1400, however, with a drop in
population after a disastrous 50 years, there

may have been a retreat from arable

distribution of tower
agriculture, and the 1650s figures may Middle Ages formanuring fields in the
Fig. 2?Geographical

reflect the taking of pastureland back into Dublin hinterland, as is furtherdetailed in

houses (courtesy of Dr Matthew Stout).

arable production in response to demands articles contained in the forthcoming

from a resurgent population (Murphy and publication by Corlett and Potterton.
Potterton, forthcoming). In spite of any limitations inherent in
The relatively low proportion of Dublin the available data, the research undertaken farms are currently largely concentrated in

farmland devoted to pasture is, as already by Murphy and Potterton (forthcoming) these regions (Crowley et al. 2008).
indicated, a somewhat
surprising feature of clearly indicates that arable production
was An alternativemodel ofmixed farming
the analysis summarised in Fig. 3. Whether the most important farming enterprise with livestockpredominant may have been
this is due to under-recording of pasture across the Dublin region in the late the most prevalent farming system in

relative to arable land and meadow, which medieval period. Indeed, a model of mixed much of the restof the country during the
seems to have occurred in the medieval farming, with cereal-growing predominant, medieval period, and indeed much earlier.

period (Jager 1983), is uncertain. Itmay may well have been the most prevalent The proliferation of tower-houses in the

also reflect, at least in part, the stall feeding farming system in the more productive fertile lowlands of County Limerick points
of livestock and the grazing of fallow land. land-holdings during the period. As in to the importance of pastoral farming in
Clearly, without sufficient livestock, the recent centuries, however, and as is still a generating wealth in medieval times

manure vital formaintaining the fertility characteristic of Irish agriculture today, (Donnelly 2001). Although an
of the arable land would have been in short arable production in themedieval period is oversimplification, the quality of arable

supply. Dung from animals, especially pigs, likely to have been predominantly land may have been an important
within the city, as well as household and concentrated in the east and south-east of determinant of the location of tower

other wastes, was used in the the Mixed crops and livestock houses in the east and south-east of the
apparently country.

36 Archaeology Ireland Summer 2009

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 KNOW YOUR MONUMENTS

Wood
7%

Pasture
13%
Fig. 3?Land use in the Dublin region, c.
1300 (left) (source: manorial extents)
Meadow
f and c. 1650 (right) (source: Civil Survey)
6% (courtesy of Dr Margaret and Dr
Murphy
Michael Potterton).

Arable
74%

country, whereas productive pastureland is Often standing in isolation as ivy-clad (eds) 2008 Crops, livestock and
to have been a more ruins, but enclosed a farming systems. In C. Crowley, J.
likely important occasionally by
determinant in areas west of the Shannon. bawn. Walsh and D. Meredith (eds), Irish
Nevertheless, cereal sometimes Later tower-houses of the sixteenth at the millennium?a census
production, farming
on a considerable seems to have and more 85-155. Dublin.
scale, been century had larger windows atlas,
undertaken in the more gun and crenellations Donnelly, CJ. 2001 Tower houses and late
productive loops, chimneys
areas in western counties, as than earlier types. of the Irish medieval secular settlement in County
farming Many
evidenced by the occurrence of long (up to tower-houses as originally built had no Limerick. In P. Duffy, D. Edwards and E.

170m or more), curvilinear, relatively wide regular fireplaces

or chimneys, but FitzPatrick (eds), Gaelic Ireland c.
(3m or more)
ridges in such areas as the these were often inserted later. 1250-c. 1650: land, lordship and
Beara Peninsula (O'Sullivan and Downey settlement, 315-28. Dublin.

2007). The period represented by such Acknowledgements Jager, H. 1983 Land use in medieval

ridges needs, insofar as is possible, to be Dr Michael Potterton kindly made Ireland: a review of the documentary
determined. Some of the wider ridges may available to us an article summarising the evidence. Irish Economic and Social

be associated with the 'corn boom' of the current state of knowledge about tower History 10, 51-65.
late 1700s and early 1800s, or conceivably houses. This ismuch appreciated,
as is the Leask, H.G. (ed.) 1986 Irish castles and

earlier grain cultivation. Apart from this informationprovided byMr Ian Doyle and castellated houses. Dundalk.

period, livestock production seems to have ProfessorTadgh O'Keeffe. The photographs Murphy, M. and Potterton, M.

been the dominant farming enterprise in of tower-houses were kindly provided by (forthcoming) The Dublin region in
Ireland over a long period of time.With Dr Colin Rynne. We are
grateful to Dr the Middle Ages: settlement, land use
the specialisation in over recent Matthew Stout for permission to use the and economy. In C. Corlett and M.
farming
decades, this historical characteristic has distribution map of tower-houses in Potterton (eds), Rural settlement in
become even more pronounced. Over 90% Ireland. medieval Ireland in the light of recent
of the total farmed land is now devoted to archaeological excavations. Dublin.

livestock, with the Shannon acting as the References O'Carroll, F. (forthcoming) A medieval
main divide between the dairy-farming Bradley, J. and Murtagh, B. 2003 Brady's and post-medieval farm landscape at

of Munster and the north-east Castle, Thomastown, Co. a Bremore, Co. Dublin. In C. Corlett and
strongholds Kilkenny:
and the specialised beef production 14th-century fortified town house. In J. M. Potterton (eds), Rural settlement in

concentrated in western counties (Crowley R. Kenyon and K. O'Conor (eds), The medieval Ireland in the light of recent
etal. 2008). medieval castle in Ireland and Wales: archaeological excavations. Dublin.

essays in honour of Jeremy Knight, O'Sullivan, M. and Downey, L. 2007

Diagnostic features 194-216. Dublin. Ridges and furrows. Archaeology Ireland

Tall, generally square buildings, usually Corlett, C. and Potterton, M. (eds) 21 (2), 34-7.
retaining some of the typical castle (forthcoming) Rural settlement in Sweetman, D. 2000 The origin and

fortifications, such as battlements, medieval Ireland in the light of recent development of the tower house. Cork.
narrow slit windows and archaeological excavations. Dublin.

machicolations. Crowley, C, Walsh, J. and Meredith, D.

Archaeology Ireland Summer 2009 37

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