Cultural landscapes of late medieval Gaelic Ulster

Abstract

If a researcher was to search for medieval and late medieval habitation sites within the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record, they could be forgiven for thinking the Ulster landscape was largely devoid of settlement. However, historical sources do not indicate a mass reduction in the population from the Early Christian to Plantation period. This body of research sought to examine the landscape and investigate how the medieval through to the late medieval landscape was managed in Gaelic areas of Ulster. This was achieved through the recreation of Gaelic estates using, primarily, the 1609 Bodley maps which visualise what is in essence a sixteenth century landscape. Using ArcGIS, it was possible to identify continuity between the individual townlands from the early seventeenth century and those still in existence today. Gaelic estates were then mapped, along with the information available from the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record, riverine systems, topography, and aerial photography. The result was the identification of fossilised, rural late medieval landscapes, in the drumlin dominated areas of east Tyrone and south Armagh. Habitation focused on the use of the drumlin as the nodal point in the landscape, from which landscape management radiated. The methodology utilised in this research has the potential to reveal medieval and late medieval landscapes over large areas. Patterns of habitation proposed here suggest the potential re- and continued use of ringforts and circular enclosures. Some such examples are still occupied today, as farms, and many appear to have become embedded in field systems that have been evolving exponentially since the nineteenth century. Further analysis of the townlands demonstrates that many were demarcated by the riverine system, and their origins may stretch back to the Early Christian period.

Date of Award	Jul 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership
Supervisor	Keith Lilley (Supervisor) & Colm Donnelly (Supervisor)