Recent revelations from thirteenth-century Roscommon (original) (raw)
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Castles in Space: An Exploration of the Space In and Around the Tower Houses of South-East Kilkenny
This study looks at the tower houses in three baronies in the south and east of County Kilkenny with two main aims. The first of these is to make a basic record of all surviving sites in the study area, their plans, co-ordinates and basic histories as well as identifying and locating as accurately as possible all destroyed sites. This basic data is then used to look at the use of space in and around these sites in order to understand the ways in which space is manipulated and reacted to by the creators of late medieval castles. Siting factors are discussed using all sites within the county backed up with information from within the survey area including many historical details. This is followed by a chapter focusing on the interior of the sites where a holistic view of the tower house is advocated. A practical way of doing this using access or control diagrams is developed which builds on similar previous work but which attempts to push the technique to its limits in new ways. Chapter 3 consists of an intensive study of the exterior space around the tower house where the principal focus is on the application of computer analysis using Geographic Information Software. After a discussion on the use and pitfalls of the technology and its specific application to tower houses in Ireland several different analytical techniques are applied. These are mostly concerned with lines of sight between castles and people. Chapter 4 takes the conclusions of the preceding chapter and applies them in three case studies in order to develop a clearer and more nuanced understanding of use of space and siting at individual sites. The final chapter introduces a new method for graphing and analysing information about the priorities of the builders in a way which draws heavily on ideas developed in the previous four chapters.
A study of Dundonnell Castle, Co. Roscommon
Dundonnell Castle will be explored through a multi-disciplinary approach. This study aims to provide a greater understanding of a simultaneously neglected but oft mentioned potentially multi-period site that has been given many roles in previous scholarly work. This is without ever having been studied properly and fully in its own right. This thesis combines an archaeological analysis of the earthworks and masonry building at Dundonnell with a large corpus of historical material that pertains to the immediate and surrounding area over an extended period of time. More specifically, the thesis will attempt to recreate the importance of the three possible phases at the site, via the use of historical, cartographical, and archaeological evidence to demonstrate the site’s dates of importance, function and role in the wider areas, and to try and pinpoint the site on the historical plane. The study of the castle type, known as the stronghouse, will also be examined in relation to Dundonnell, in an attempt to further the knowledge of this understudied monument type.
The Tower-house in Ireland: Origins, Dating & Function
Irish tower-houses, which are typically dated between c.1400 and c.1600 , are amongst the most common of upstanding archaeological monuments in Ireland, yet many points of contention persist amongst scholars as to their origin, date and function. One particular definition describes the tower-house as ‘a compact fortified house in which the hall is raised above the ground with one or more storeys above it’ . On a considerably smaller scale than the large curtain-walled castles of the thirteenth century, the tower-house was to provide the typical abode of the Gaelic and Anglo-Irish gentry of the fifteenth and sixteenth century . In construction the tower-house, in its simplest guise, was rectangular in plan and was up to six storeys in height with various defensive features including a vaulted roof over the ground floor, which was to theoretically guard against fire spreading to the upper reaches of castle. The ground floor was typically used for storing supplies and was often the first line of defence should the main door be breached, while the second storey provided the main hall, with the remaining storeys usually consisting of the private quarters. For further protection murder-holes were often present between the ground and first floors. The tower-house was sometimes protected by a walled-courtyard (Figs. 2 and 3), though this latter feature does not appear to have been universally constructed of stone and does not often survive into modern times. The study of bawn walls is very limited, as very little archaeological excavation has taken place outside of tower-houses. Significantly, the Civil Survey of the 1650’s mentions bawn walls at only 20% of the towers it lists . Although often regarded, not as true castles but rather as mere fortified houses, the type also includes examples on a very large scale such as those great tower-houses found in Counties Limerick, Clare, Galway and Cork . However, as Colm Donnelly points out, the term ‘tower-house’ is itself of nineteenth century origin and that contemporary historical sources regard these structures simply as ‘castles’ Although the subjects of demographic ethnicity and typology by regional distribution are touched upon in places, they are not specifically treated in this study.
This paper readdresses the unusual phenomenon of hilltop castle siting in England and Wales. It agrees with the general consensus that hilltop castles were intentionally symbolic of their builders’ power, rather than having an effective defensive purpose. The paper challenges the limitations of a general castellogical research approach to gaining a more complete understanding of a hilltop castle’s purpose. Generally overlooked are the strong linkages between the castle’s wider geopolitical landscape, the social power of the hilltop castle builder,and the form and siting of hilltop castles in relation to each other within relevant contemporary geographical boundaries. The research approach is multidisciplinary, including the examination of all available architectural, cartographic, documentary, place-name, archaeological and topographical material. The case study of the medieval hilltop castles of 12th-century Buckton and 13th-century Beeston in Cheshire, north-west England, uncovers a clear physical and symbolic link between them, where their similar form and siting in the landscape were intended to enhance the significant power of the earls of Chester. Both hilltop positions were deliberately chosen to enhance their visibility from within elite hunting landscapes below.A prime purpose for Beeston’s hilltop siting was the intervisibility between the castle and its ancestral castle at Buckton. Both demarcating and overseeing Cheshire’s boundaries, the castles jointly symbolised significant inherited power within the geopolitical landscape of the county and beyond. This paper will contribute to future multidisciplinary research of the geopolitical, social and symbolic relationships between castles, their builders and their landscapes, thus integrating the wider fields of castellology, medieval archaeology and history.
Development-led excavation in Ireland increased dramatically in recent years, which revealed a large number of previously unknown early medieval enclosed settlements and settlement/cemetery sites. Many of these sites are non-circular in shape, which has led to the suggestion of a new site type. It is argued here that this is not the case and that the mistaken perception of the circularity of the Irish ring-fort has led to the incorrect identifi cation of recently discovered early medieval settlements. There is emerging evidence, however, for settlement/cemetery sites that are mostly non-circular with origins, in many instances, in the late Iron Age/early medieval transitional period. It is the association of settlement and burial that differentiates these from the thousands of variously shaped enclosures known as ring-forts and cashels in the Irish country-side. This paper assesses the archaeological settlement landscape evidence and material culture for a range of enclosed early medieval sites and explores these fi ndings against the backdrop of social status and mobility, which were such important aspects of Irish society during the early Middle Ages. The fi ndings are based on a small sample of excavated non-circular enclosures-in some cases from interim excavation reports and unpublished research-and an examination of a larger corpus of material may reveal differing outcomes. The aim of this paper is to continue the critical evaluation of archaeological fi ndings as they reveal themselves at a pace not seen before in Irish archaeology. This paper will explore and assess the recently excavated non-circular sites variously referred to as D-, heart-and plectrum-shaped enclosures. It is the writer's belief that these sites were the dwelling-places for a variety of social classes, as described in the seventh-and eighth-century law texts, from the ordinary small farmer (ócaire); to the strong farmer (bóaire); and the lordly classes (aire/rí)see for an in-depth analysis of the law tracts and society in early medieval Ireland during the seventh and eighth centuries. The archaeo-90 logical remains refl ect diversity in the agriculture and industry practised by the occupants and retainers of these households. It is argued-as opposed to and -that the majority of non-circular enclosures do not represent a new early medieval settlement type but that they mirror the type of material remains discovered on previously excavated ring-forts. This paper begins with a detailed examination of the morphological, chronological, landscape and artefactual evidence for early medieval ring-forts. The archaeological evidence suggests social hierarchical divisions within both circular and non-circular enclosures and reveals that enclosure shape had no relevance to the types of activities or status of the people within these settlements. It is suggested that a simplifi ed approach has been taken regarding the classifi cation of ring-forts and their supposedly uniform circular plan, and that this has led to the wrongful identifi cation of a host of 'newly recognised' early medieval settlement types. However, excavations are now revealing mainly non-circular settlement/ cemetery sites that emerged in the late Iron Age/early medieval transitional period and they can be differentiated archaeologically from the evidence discovered at many ring-fort excavations. Often, it was the settlement's relationship with the cemetery that resulted in its development and prominence in the surrounding landscape.
'Blarney Castle: An Irish Tower House' by James Lyttleton
Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 118, 142-4, 2013
In this book the current Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork presents an outstanding account of the prehistoric archaeology of county Cork. Although the author notes that the target audience is 'an interested public', and that the book is primarily for a Cork readership, the text is so comprehensive that it can certainly be used by both students and professional archaeologists in Ireland and beyond. O'Brien provides an easily accessible source of quite detailed information, supplemented by meticulous endnotes, which facilitates those who need to know the original sources of information in journals, books and unpublished reports.
Early medieval houses in Ireland, as elsewhere, were the places where people slept, worked on crafts, prepared and consumed food, gathered together at night, and where a household extended hospitality to kin and neighbors. 1 Early medieval houses and dwellings were key venues for the enactment or performance of social identities of ethnicity, social status, gender, kinship, and community. As in most house societies worldwide, these buildings were effectively the places where social identities were created. Children were socialized through routine life, and, through watching their elders, learned how one interacted with people of different genders, ages, kin groups, and rank.