AR2042 (5)

RURAL SETTLEMENT IN
LATER MEDIEVAL IRELAND

1
 Settlement
• Gaelic areas were thinly populated,
economy largely pastoral
• Village life was an Anglo-Norman
introduction

2
 Settlement
• The typical European settlement types
involving agglomerations of dwellings was
alien to Gaelic custom
• The only dwelling clusters to be found in
Gaelic Ireland were in the vicinity of
ecclesiastical centres and chieftains’
dwellings

3
 Continuity
• The term ringfort, many have argued, is a
misnomer
• An umbrella term which simplifies and
conflates several types of enclosed
settlement types in the early and later
medieval periods
• There is both documentary and
archaeological evidence for their continued
use in the later medieval and post-medieval
periods

4
 5
Cahervagliar, Cappeen West, Co. Cork
Ringforts at Ballingarry Lower, Co. Tipperary
6
Lisnagun, Co. Cork 7
 Continuity
• The Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh (‘The
victories of Turlough’), a battle roll of
the late 14th century, refers to the lios,
the dúnad and the rílongport
• These suggest separate enclosures in
accordance with rank or social
standing

8
 Continuity
• Of the 156 cashels and earthen raths
excavated between 1970 and 2005, 40%
provided early medieval dates
• Yet 10% provided evidence for later-
medieval and post-medieval
occupation

9
 Continuity
• Ballymacash rath, Co. Antrim produced
evidence for structural modifications during
the 11th to 14th centuries
• Two rath sites at Mackney and Loughbown I,
Co. Galway produced evidence for
occupation from the 8th to the 17th centuries
• Thady’s Fort, excavated to facilitate the
construction of the runways at Shannon
airport, was dated by its excavator to c. 1600

10
Ballymacash,
Co. Antrim

11
Thady’s Fort,
Co. Clare

12
 Continuity
• A circular, enclosed farmstead, 42m in
diameter has also been recently excavated
at Charlesland, Co. Wicklow
• This has been dated by later medieval
pottery and other finds of the period to AD
1260-1320.

13
Charlesland,
Co. Wicklow

14
15
Tullyhogue, Co Tyrone

16
• There is also evidence for the later medieval
occupation of sites such as cashels and crannogs
• Many excavated promontory forts in the same
period also have extensive later medieval
occupation
• The lack of impressive physical expressions of
Gaelic Lordship in the same period probably derives
from the Irish preference to express this in non-
monumental ways, through patronage, the
ownership of large herds of cattle and feasting.

17
 Crannóga
• There is a large corpus of
evidence for the use of
crannógs in 15th, 16th and
17th as lordly residences.
• Mill Lough, co. Fermanagh
has been radio-carbon dated
to the 1530s.
• Irish crannógs have also
yielded evidence for
imported pottery of the
period

18
Cahermacnaghten,
Co. Clare
19
 An immigrant population
• The Anglo-Norman colony in Ireland
consisted of immigrants from the English
west Midlands
• These were essentially a peasant
workforce, who brought their own lifestyle,
belief system and agricultural organisation
with them
• As with subsequent immigrant communities
in Ireland, we should not assume that they
were homogenous

20
 The Manor and village
nucleation
• In England and in Normandy rural
settlement tended to focus on the village
• The village accommodated the farming
community, and was served by a church,
basic roads (or some access to major
routeways), the grange (a collection of farm
buildings and animal enclosures), while the
manor house would be not too far distant.
• Early settlements would also be close to an
earthwork castle such as a motte and bailey
castle or a ringwork
21
 The Manor and village nucleation

Ringwork castle,
Drumsawry, Co. Meath

Motte and bailey castle,

Glebe, Co. Westmeath
22
 Dispersed settlement in townlands

• In Ireland the typical greater European

manorial village is a much rarer phenomenon
• The pre-existing townland system, appears to
have been readily adopted by the new
colonizers as an administrative unit

23
 Dispersed settlement in townlands

• Individual tenants tended to be dispersed on

lands situated within existing townland
divisions
• In Ireland the existence of a later medieval
church and an associated motte commonly
does not indicate the existence of an
adjacent village (as would be the case in
England)

24
 Motte and
bailey castle

Settlement?

Fortified church

Moylagh Co. Meath

25
Dispersed settlement in townlands

Mondaniel, Co. Cork

26
Dispersed settlement in townlands
Mondaniel, Co. Cork

27
Dispersed settlement in townlands
Boyerstown, Co. Meath

28
Boyerstown, Co. Meath

29
 Deserted medieval village (DMVs)
• DMVs can be identified from surviving
earthworks as at Kiltinane, co. Tipperary, and
Newtown Jerpoint, Kilkenny
• At Jerpoint over 20 house platforms can be
traced on the surface, along with a clear
street pattern
• Very little is known about DMV layout, only a
handful of Irish DMVs have been excavated,
and only partially (Liathmore, Tipperary, by
Robin Glasscock; Piperstown, Louth, by Terry
Barry, Mullaghamast, Co. Kildare)
30
Newtown Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny

31
Newtown Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny

32
Newtown Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny

33
Newtown Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny

34
Mullaghamast, Co. Kildare

35
Mullaghamast, Co. Kildare

36
Cookstown,
Co. Meath

37
Killegland, Co. Meath

38
Killegland, Co. Meath,
c1250-1400

39
The Manor: Wharram Percy, Yorkshire 40
 The Manorial buildings
• Archaeologically, the original buildings
of Anglo-Norman manors are least well
documented
• Manor houses: At Jerpointchurch,
county Kilkenny, a substantial two-
storey, masonry building, 5m wide
internally and some 10m long, dating to
the late 13th or early 14th centuries

41
 Peasant Houses
• A relatively small number of peasant houses
have thus far been excavated
• These include Piperstown, county Louth
• Two small stone-walled dwellings at
Caherguillamore (Lough Gur)
• A 13th century mud-walled house at
Bourchier’s Castle (also Lough Gur) in county
Limerick
• The Lough Gur houses have broad, but by no
means close parallels with English peasant
houses of the same period

42
13th-century peasant houses,
Lough Gur, Co. Limerick

43
Later medieval longhouse,
44
Valentia Island
Medieval ridge and furrow, Valentia Island 45