Siting of castles in the Midlands of Ireland: a spatial approach to cultural landscapes

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Persistent link to this item

Statistics
View Statistics

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

Siting of castles in the Midlands of Ireland: a spatial approach to cultural landscapes

Published Date

2015-01

Publisher

Type

Thesis or Dissertation

Abstract

During the medieval period, an attempted colonization of Ireland by Anglo-Norman lords resulted in the widespread construction of castles of all forms in the Irish countryside. The placement of castles in the landscape was an attempt to subdue the local Gaelic Irish population to create a lordly manorial landscape of dominance.This dissertation examines the spatial siting of timber castles in north County Tipperary, Ireland to investigate the role castles played in the first decades of Anglo-Norman conquest and lordship. Located in the midlands of the country, County Tipperary provides an ideal location for a case study on the colonial motives of placing castles in the landscape.In addition, this work reevaluates the classification of ringwork castles in north County Tipperary as designated in the Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary Volume 1: North Tipperary (Farrelly and O'Brien 2002). Ringwork castles are a contentious site type as they are morphologically similar to the early medieval ringfort. This reevaluation rejects 66.6% (18/27) of the classified ringwork castles.Results of the landscape siting of timber castles provides evidence of the importance of controlling routes and ford crossings, the connection to ecclesiastical foundations, and the placement of castles in wet or boggy locations. The results contribute broadly the fields of medieval archaeology and castle studies by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach of colonial studies, historical landscape studies, and GIS.

Description

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. February 2015. Major: Anthropology. Advisor: Peter S. Wells. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 461 pages.

Related to

Replaces

License

Collections

Series/Report Number

Funding information

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Suggested citation

Immich, Jennifer Lee. (2015). Siting of castles in the Midlands of Ireland: a spatial approach to cultural landscapes. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/171219.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.