Identifying the Ringwork Castles of County Wexford with a View to Reconsidering Irish Ringwork Classification
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When is a ringwork a ringwork? Identifying the ringwork castles of County Wexford with a view to reconsidering Irish ringwork classification. Grace Dennis-Toone Bachelor of Archaeology Graduate Diploma in Archaeology and Heritage Management Flinders University A thesis submitted in partial requirements for the degree of Master of Archaeology and Heritage Management, Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University, December 2019. 1 Declaration I certify that this thesis does not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university and to the best of my knowledge and belief, does not contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text. Grace Dennis-Toone 2 Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Research questions and aims ....................................................................................... 8 1.3 Chapter outline ......................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 Colonies and Conquest: A brief history of County Wexford ................................. 13 2.1 Celtic and Pre-Viking Period ....................................................................................... 13 2.2 The Scandinavian Vikings in Wexford ......................................................................... 15 2.3 The Anglo-Norman Invasion ...................................................................................... 15 2.4 Land-grants and Settlements ..................................................................................... 18 Chapter 3 The literature of Ireland’s ringwork castles ......................................................... 19 3.1 Introduction to the chapter ....................................................................................... 19 3.2 The Ringwork Castle in Europe .................................................................................. 19 3.3 The Ringwork in England ........................................................................................... 20 3.4 The Ringwork Castle in Ireland................................................................................... 24 3.5 Previous Research ..................................................................................................... 24 3.6.1 The Archaeology: Earthworks ................................................................................. 29 3.6.2 The Archaeology: Excavations of ringwork castles in Ireland, England and Wales ... 31 Chapter 4 Methods ............................................................................................................. 34 4.1 Introduction: ............................................................................................................. 34 4.2 Limitations for this project ......................................................................................... 34 4.3.1 Identifying and locating sites .................................................................................. 34 4.3.2 Initial Site Evaluations and Permissions: ................................................................. 38 4.4.1 Field Recording Data Collection .............................................................................. 40 4.4.2 Aerial Drone Surveys: ............................................................................................. 40 4.5.1 Dunanore: .............................................................................................................. 43 4.5.2 Topographical Survey: ............................................................................................ 43 4.5.3 Geophysical Survey Magnetometry: ....................................................................... 45 4.6 Analytical Methods: ................................................................................................... 45 Chapter 5 Results ................................................................................................................ 48 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 48 5.2 Morphology ............................................................................................................... 48 5.3 Siting in the landscape ............................................................................................... 52 5.4 Siting in Relation to High Medieval Settlement .......................................................... 53 5.5 Documentary Evidence .............................................................................................. 54 3 5.6 Extensive Past Archaeological research ..................................................................... 58 5.7 Results from the additional archaeological methods applied to Dunanore ................ 60 5.8 Analysis and Conclusion ............................................................................................. 61 Chapter 6 Discussion and Interpretation ............................................................................. 63 6.1 Interpretation of Results ............................................................................................ 63 6.2 Comparison to Previous Studies ................................................................................ 65 6.3 Discussion.................................................................................................................. 69 6.3.1 The most and least reliable criteria ......................................................................... 70 6.3.2 Key issues in ringwork castle identification ............................................................. 71 6.3.3 The role of the ringwork castle in the Anglo-Norman conquest and colonisation of Ireland ............................................................................................................................. 73 6.3.4 Pre and post conquest occupation at ringwork sites ............................................... 77 7.1 Future Directions ....................................................................................................... 78 4 Figures Figure 1. The medieval provinces of Ireland. Base map from the Ordnance Survey Ireland 2019 ........................................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 2. The modern counties situated within the province of Leinster. Base map from the Ordnance Survey Ireland 2019 ............................................................................................ 14 Figure 3. The Ros Tapestry, depicting the Anglo-Norman knights arriving to Wexford. ........ 17 Figure 4. The Ros Tapestry, depicting the wedding of Strongbow and Aoife in 1170. .......... 17 Figure 5. Anglo-Norman settlements in relation to the frontier zones in Co. Wexford. Image from Colfer 2013:49. ........................................................................................................... 28 Figure 6. OSI 2017 Aerial Premium, Great Island 1 site........................................................ 36 Figure 7. OSI Historic Map black and white 1837, Great Island 1 site. .................................. 36 Figure 8. Overlay of the Aerial Premium and Historic Map black and white 1837 at Great Island 1 site. .................................................................................................................................. 36 Figure 9.. Archaeological Survey of Ireland Historic Environment Viewer – Wexford Ringworks. Shows the sites classified as ringworks according to the ASI. Sourced January 2019 online - http://webgis.archaeology.ie/historicenvironment/ ............................................................... 38 Figure 10. Site plan and profile of Dunanore (after a survey by Conor McHale and original surveys by Grace Dennis-Toone and the IAFS). The internal features mapped are shown in red. Those in black are from the McHale survey. The geophysical survey grid is depicted by the red box. ..................................................................................................................................... 44 Figure 11. Site diameter graph showing sites within 30-60m diameter. .............................. 49 Figure 12. Site diameter graph. .......................................................................................... 49 Figure 13. Distance to nearest waterway graph. ................................................................. 52 Figure 14. Distance to a high medieval settlement site ....................................................... 53 Figure 15. The land-grants given by Strongbow, Colfer 2013:26 ......................................... 55 Figure 16. Showing the criteria met by each site. ................................................................ 61 Figure 17. The ringwork castle sites of Co. Wexford in relation to 13th century land grants, base map Colfer 2013:31..................................................................................................... 74 Figure 18. The ringwork castle sites of Co. Wexford in relation to Strongbow’s land grants, base map Colfer 2013:26....................................................................................................