Medieval Agriculture and Settlement in Oughterard and Castlewarden, Co. Kildare

Abstract

This paper is an account and analysis of the results of an interdisciplinary project on the medieval period in part of north-east county Kildare. Field survey revealed relic features of open-field agriculture which were identified by comparison with English evidence and were of a form hitherto unnoticed in Ireland. Medieval settlement remains in the area, a borough site, a church, a moated site, a building platform and a tower house, are described and discussed. Documentary evidence is used to outline the development of the area through the Middle Ages. A report on a preliminary phosphate analysis is appended.

Notes

Ibid., vol. V, No. 49

Ibid., vol. IV, No. 313

Ibid., vol. III, No. 8

Ibid., vol. IV, Appendix 2, h

Ibid. No. LXXXIX. 77

Ibid. No. LXXXVIII. 75

D. N. Hall, op. cit.

An unusual feature observed in fieldwork is a very denuded linear bank and fosse located south-east of the church, It may be of pre-Norman date but requires more detailed study.

P. Harbison, op. cit., 126

Ibid

Ibid., 119

Note that the distribution map of double-splayed windows published by E. M. Jope (Ulster Journal of Archaeology 3, 16 (1953), 100) showing them in east Ulster and north Leinster is misleading; they are found in most parts of the country.

Ibid., 59

T. B. Barry, op. cit., (1977)

C. A. Empey, op. cit., (1982), 334–5

R. E. Glasscock, op. cit. (1970), map. A discussion on the distributional and chronological evidence for Irish moated sites is in preparation by T. O'K.

M. J. Conry et al. op. cit.

Sverre Bakkevig, op. cit., 88–9

My thanks to Dr. Anngret Simms for her support and to Mr. Gabriel Cooney for much practical help in the field and in the preparation of this appendix. Mr. O'Connor of Oughterard kindly gave permission to work on his land. I am also indebted to Dr. Reinhard Zölitz for permission to use the laboratory of the Dept. of Geography in Kiel, and to his assistants. Leila Berg and Uwe Heinrich. who introduced me to the laboratory practice. Finally, my thanks to Tadhg O'Keeffe and Mark Hennessy for their co-operation.