Mayo Theme -
2
Homesteads
The first millennium AD provides us with plenty
of settlement sites and few burial places. The
dispersed pattern of settlement of earlier periods
persists with some regional centres represented by
hill-forts.
Anyone investigating the ancient landscape will
become aware of the frequency with which the
ring-fort appears. The term ring fort is sometimes
misunderstood as having military connotations, but
these numerous circular spaces defined by earthen
or stone banks were the everyday homestead of the
Irish farmer.
The ring-forts,
now usually overgrown, are perhaps not as
remarkable as when they paraded a wooden palisade
along the top of their once formidable banks in
order to protect livestock from cattle raiders and
indeed to offer respite from attack by wild beasts
at night. It also offered some security for the
farmer and his family and extended family. They
would have lived in huts, which were of a type that
differed little from the ones inhabited by people
in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Generally there is
no surface trace of any building, although
occasionally evidence of foundations has been
discovered.
Some ring-forts would have had an additional
security element constructed, an underground
chamber or 'souterrain'.These
stone-lined passages with architectural echoes of
the Neolithic were probably used in the main to
store food but would have provided a useful refuge
in times of attack. Some of the more sophisticated
souterrains had air vents incorporated, perhaps an
indication of the constant and serious nature of
these attacks.
Where the ground was stony and difficult to dig,
the ring-fort would have been constructed with
stone. These dry-stone constructions are comparable
in size with the earthen ring-forts but in some
cases are substantial enough to suggest that they
were the fortification of an elite member of
society. In the main ring-forts are approximately
20 to 60 metres in diameter with a single bank but
some examples can exceed 100 metres and some can
have more than one rampart. According to Brehon law
the king's abode should have a double earthen
rampart, the outer ring being built by the forced
labour of the king's lower vassals (ceili
giallnai). Our modern notion of kingship should
not cloud our view of these earlier versions and
perhaps what is more likely is that these
ring-forts were, regardless of their size, the
homesteads of relatively wealthy farmers rather
than overlords.
Another form of protected homestead contemporary
with ring-forts is the crannog. Crannogs are
artificially constructed islands. They were created
by pile-driving tree-trunks into the muddy bed of
the lake to form a substantial foundation on which
branches stones and peat were laid to form a firm
flat base. Access to the crannog was by boat or
where possible by a causeway submerged just beneath
the water. We can picture the complete crannog with
its wooden stockade surrounding a round hut with
wattle walls and a thatched roof, perhaps enjoying
the close proximity of other such dwelling
places.
Crannog construction was a considerable
undertaking given the amount of timber and other
material needed. This would indicate that perhaps
these projects were pursued by those with status to
command the type of resources necessary for their
construction. The crannog on Moher Lake gave its
name (Illane na Moghere) to the eastern division of
the O'Malley country, thus emphasising the
importance and stature of the occupants of this
enclosed lake settlement. Many crannogs have
yielded evidence of bronze working, mould fragments
for the manufacture of trinkets, evidence of luxury
goods production.
This distinctly Irish aquatic style of residence
has contested origins from the later Bronze Age
into the Iron Age and Early Medieval Period, but
the same sites were reoccupied time and again even
after inundation. The main phase for crannog
building was the late sixth to early seventh
century AD. The dendrochronology (tree ring dating)
shows that in the latter part of the first
millennium AD mature oak had become increasingly
scarce; as a result, construction of large crannogs
would have become more difficult.
The large number of fossilised settlement forms
in the Irish countryside indicates a well-settled
landscape. Some examples were occupied even as late
as the seventeenth century but with the arrival of
Christianity in
the fifth century, new elements were introduced as
the church played an increasingly important role in
the shaping of Irish society.
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project has been supported by the EU as part of the Culture
2000 programme.