Late Medieval Gaelic Identity and Innovation in the Burren Cathair Tradition

This essay examines the usage of Gaelic enclosed settlement types as habitations into the medieval period and evidence is provided from historical, archaeological and cartographic sources to support the view that ring-fort type enclosures were used by the Gaelic Irish as settlements well into the medieval and post-medieval periods. This is an advancement and correction upon the earlier views of some Irish archaeologists who theorized that ring-forts were abandoned as early as the first millennium AD (O’Keeffe 2004, 20), although O’Keeffe does give good analytical insight into why the Gaelic Irish during the medieval period would choose to retreat to tradition in order to express their own historical identity at a time when the Anglo-Normans were controlling other parts of the country (ibid: 12). It is interesting that in Co. Clare there was only ever one Anglo-Norman Motte and Bailey Castle and one Moated Site near Bunratty which became for a while the centre of the Anglo-Norman cantred of Tradree in the 1200s, with trading rights being granted to Robert De Muscegros in 1248 within this region of south-east Clare, before Bunratty Castle itself was finally taken over by the Gaelic Irish. While focusing upon the Gaelic enclosed settlement type of Stone Cashels which were abundant in the north Clare region of the Burren, it is important to give a brief overview of the various forms of settlement types being used by the Gaelic Irish throughout the island at that time. Kieran O’Conor has written extensively about high-status medieval Gaelic Irish sites including Crannógs, Ringforts, and sites known as Longphort’s which has been taken to refer to a port or encampment for ships, but O’Conor has pointed out the Longphort appears in the writings of Gaelic-Irish commentators from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as a somewhat safe place in inland or dry-land places (O’Keeffe 2004, 10). More than 45,000 enclosed settlements of the type ráth and caisel exist throughout the Irish countryside, but despite the large number they remain one of the lesser understood archaeological features in the country (Fitzpatrick 2009, 271). Fitzpatrick (ibid: 278) also notes that archaeological excavations at such sites give precedence to the earliest layers of occupation often to the detriment of understanding later stages of occupation and the social changes and modifications that took place at these habitations and consequently may overlook vital evidence concerning regional and local variations important for accurate interpretation of these sites.

O’Conor (1998, 92) highlights some of the historical and cartographic evidence pertinent to the building and usage of ringforts in the medieval period and beyond. An entry in the chronicles (Caithreim Thoirdhealbaigh, i, 2; ii, 2) refers to Donnchad O’Brien “building a circular hold and princely residence of earth” at Clonroad, Co. Clare shortly before 1242. The words rath and lios were used by early Christian writers to describe earthen ringforts Mention is made of the Irish elite remaining calm within their ringforts after a battle fought in 1317 around Corcomroe Abbey, Co. Clare, This is a good record of the use of ringforts in this area during the medieval period (ibid: 92). Fitzpatrick (2009, 275) notes that the battle-role referred to above makes it clear that a distinction existed for the use of different types of enclosed settlements used depending upon the social role of the occupant. O’Conor also describes how evidence for ringfort habitation appears in a poem after the death of Tomas Mag Shamhradhan in 1343 and also in maps of Ulster drawn up by cartographers in the early seventeenth century (ibid: 92). While examining the excavated evidence for thirteenth and fourteenth century occupation of ringforts throughout Ireland in general, it is clear that a lot of leverage has been placed upon stray finds of medieval pottery and that many ringforts throughout the country do not have post-1200 layers of occupation, according to O’Conor (1998, 89). There is evidence however that Cashels were occupied up to the seventeenth century (ibid: 86) and the excavation of the cashel at Ballynaveeroragh, Co. Kerry, for example, suggests that this site had a thirteenth century phase (ibid: 86). O’Conor notes that there is proof the O’Davorens continued using the cashel at Cahirmacnaghten, Co. Clare, up to the seventeenth century (ibid: 86) In 1675 a will and deed of partition made by Gillanaeve O’Davoren mentions a large house and kitchen within their cashel which is described as a ‘keannait’ or cennait meaning a chief or head place (ibid: 86). Long occupation is evidenced by the build-up of occupation layers within the cashel at Cahirmacnaghten which makes the ground level within far higher than the surrounding terrain (ibid: 86).

The Discovery Programme has conducted much fieldwork in the Burren and late medieval occupation of several cashels, including Cashlauan Gearr, Cahirmore and Cahirmoyle is suggested by them. It is interesting that some cashels contain Tower Houses that were built in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, such as Inishere, co. Galway and Cahercullaun, Co. Kerry (Westropp 1902, 631), making it a possibility that these cashels were actually in use up to the time of the Tower House constructions (O’Conor , 86). The O’Laughlin family of Co. Clare built a Tower House in the 15th century that incorporated the existing cashel at Cahercloggaun for use a castle bawn wall. The same procedure was used at other cashel sites such as Ballyganner and Ballyshanny in Co. Clare and Cahirillian in south Co. Galway (Fitzpatrick 2001, 57). Carleton Jones has also suggested that some cathair sites in the Burren may have seen continuous habitation up until the advent of Tower Houses in the 15th or 16th century (Fitzpatrick 2009, 288).

The sheer number of Gaelic Irish settlements located in the Burren is testimony to a thriving community in the past based on pastoralism and very different to the perspective that a modern-day traveler through the countryside might have of a somewhat isolated area. In 1895 Westropp (1901, 283) estimated the number of forts in the Barony of the Burren to be 306 (Westropp 1902, 417, Fitzpatrick 2001, 45) but subsequently Robinson noted some 450 sites in his 1977 map of the same area (ibid: 45). Three surveys of Cahermore Stone Fort were carried out from 1995-99 and excavations undertaken in 1999 in preparation for repairs to its entrance gateway Cahermore is sited on the eastern side of a valley that runs NE-SW in north County Clare. The stone fort consists of two concentric walls with the remains of stone foundations for structures within its interior. A cutting measuring 11m x 10m around the gatehouse, which was built with mortared coarse limestone, was excavated by the team (Fitzpatrick 2001, 52) and some finds included a post-medieval coin dating to the seventeenth century along with a fragment of a rotary quern (ibid: 53). On the south side of the gatehouse a dressed limestone block was discovered and on either side of the gateway passage there were small chambers in the limestone, along with a small spud in the west side of the wall which would have supported a doorway (ibid: 55).

Cashels are regarded as being a similar type of habitation as Ráths with the main deviation being in the materials used to construct them, stone for cashels and earth for Ráths. Because it would make sense to use the abundance of available stone in the Burren as a building material it has been suggested that the construction of earthen Ráths there may have had a special meaning or symbolism for the occupants. Fitzpatrick (2009, 275) highlights the fact that earthen enclosures occur near stone cashels in the Burren where it would have taken extra effort to construct them in such rocky terrain and offers an explanation that the social role of the occupants or chronological meaning may have been factors for building them in the region. In the Burren region with its vast amount of Cashels, almost one for every square kilometre, there are only three earthen ringforts or Ráths. The term ráth originally referred to just the surrounding earthen bank and ditch, but in the later Middle Ages the word became used to describe the entire settlement enclosure including its internal structures (Fitzpatrick 2009, 273). While many of the Burren Cashels were constructed in the Iron Age it is undisputed that they had a long period of usage into the medieval and post-medieval periods (ibid: 56). At Cahermore the remains of a rectangular structure in its southern interior has a feature of rounded quoin stones and this suggests a late medieval date, as highlighted by Fitzpatrick (ibid: 57) similar types of quoin stones used in Tower Houses in the Clare and Galway regions are generally thought to date to the 16th century. Excavation of the gate-house at Cahermore showed that this was a later addition as it was built upon the earlier cashel wall and this later addition shows that the cashel was occupied in the 14th/15th centuries (ibid: 57). An early sketch by Westropp shows that the gatehouse was a two storey construction, but nothing survives of the upper floor today (ibid: 57) and it is evident that security was a primary consideration to control access to the settlement.

Fitzpatrick (2009, 281) explains how two ráth sites at Mackney and Loughbown I excavated prior to a 2006 road construction in Co. Galway revealed evidence for late occupation. Mackney in particular showed prolonged occupation and settlement activity for dates between the 8th and 17th centuries. Loughbown I had a possible early-modern forge with evidence for metal working in the high-medieval period and the site had occupation activity from the 5th to 14th centuries (ibid: 281). While examining Gaelic tradition and innovation in the Burren Cathair settlements it is important to understand how the area was laid out politically. During the early Middle Ages, the Burren was part of the kingdom of Corcu Modruad which was divided into six tuatha. Later the medieval lordships of the O’Loughlins controlled the Burren and the O’Connors Corcomroe (Fitzpatrick 2009, 283). These two lordships would have had minor elites and service families who inhabited cathairs, such as the O’Davoren family of Brehon lawyers who were in service to the O’Loughlins chiefs as early as 1364 and resided at Cahermacnaghten (ibid: 290). Although evidence exists for the usage of many Burren cathair sites into the medieval and early modern periods, it is not possible to determine from the archaeological record if these habitations were continuous form the early Middle Ages. However, there is no record of any major population movements out of the Burren during this time and it is therefore reasonable to assume that cathairs were likely used as habitations on a continuous basis (ibid: 288). The medieval building fabric at Cahermacnaghten was often interpreted by archaeologists to be a rare example of the later use of ringforts in the west of Ireland, but closer examination of caisels throughout the Burren and evidence of medieval building fabric would seem to indicate that these sites were used as residences by Gaelic minor elites during the late-medieval and post-medieval periods (ibid: 288). An early suggestion by Westropp in 1896 was that the mortared gateway structures in caisels and the straight-sided cahers or mothair were ‘transitional’ to the 14th century, but more recent fieldwork has shown that these features and associated buildings continued to be used into the 17th century (ibid: 289).

According to Fitzpatrick (2009, 289) the evidence for late medieval activity at cathairs in the Burren which continued into the early modern period include the use of mortar in later addition gateways, rectangular buildings often quite large within the occupation site, the use of caisel walls for Tower House bawns, later use of building fabric to the cathair wall which shows obvious additions, a cathair which was later used as a clachan or nucleated settlement and became its centre or focal point or had 19th century buildings in its environs, and documentary evidence of late-medieval or early modern usage where archaeological finds have been recorded. Certain features in the preparation of building stone and other construction fabric can be definitively ascertained as being medieval, such as punch-dressing of stone, a later medieval innovation upon diagonal tooling used in the earlier medieval period. The reason for dressing the stones was to apply a thin layer of mortar which would then often be lime-washed. Evidence for many of these features is referenced by Fitzpatrick (2009, 290) as being present at several cathairs in the Burren. These are late medieval building alterations to cathair entrances and at Caherahoagh in the south-east of the Burren the construction of a gateway had features such as deep bar holes, archways and punch-dressed stones (ibid: 290). Also, in the Burren uplands two Cathairs of note, Cahermacnaghten and Cahermore, had gatehouses inserted also indicating late medieval occupation with building improvements being carried out. The O’Davoren family who were Brehon Lawyers in service to the O’Loughlin chiefs of the Burren from about 1364 resided at Cahermacnaghten which acted as their main residence or head place (ibid: 290). A sketch by Westropp from 1911 showing the plan of Cahermacnaghten shows where the five rectangular buildings were situated in the interior and interestingly he shows a small alcove in the south wall that was no more than 1.5 sq m and according to Fitzpatrick (ibid: 291) was likely to have been a small stone stairway to allow access to the upper floor of the gatehouse or possibly a small guardroom.

Extensive fieldwork carried out at Cahermacnaghten uncovered a very large punch-dressed bowed archstone that had been used in modern times as part of a stone wall near the caiseal and was only discovered very recently by Fitzpatrick (2009, 292). The archstone was one of a pair and it was likely to have been originally positioned on the interior side of the gatehouse or possibly used on the entrance to one of the larger rectangular buildings within the caiseal itself (ibid: 292). It is quite possible that the late-medieval gatehouse may have been a replacement for a more typical early medieval square-headed lintelled doorway and passageway into the caiseal (ibid:293). It is interesting that social factors may have been at play as to who these later medieval gatehouses were constructed on these residences of the minor elite. As noted by Fitzpatrick (ibid: 293) the occupants may have been influenced by features used by greater lords on their Tower Houses, to somewhat emulate the gate-entrances of the small castles that were being constructed by chiefs like the O’Loughlin’s, O’Conor’s and O’Brien’s in the Burren region (ibid: 293). A nearby cathair at Cahermore only 5km from Cahermacnaghten in an upland location towards the north-east also has a gatehouse which appears through excavation to have been more defensive and perhaps a century older than the gatehouse at Cahermacnaghten based upon dating evidence (ibid: 293). Cahermore is considered one of the ‘great western stone forts’ as it is very large and set in a commanding position high up in the landscape, has bivallate walls encircling it with radial walls connecting these two at various points (ibid: 294). It contains a stone house in the southern end of its garth, but it is difficult to date precisely without excavation whether it is late medieval or earlier. The addition of the defensive late medieval gatehouse happened after the lowering of the original cathair wall as the excavator noticed the gatehouse was built upon this lower line in the 14th or early 15th century (ibid: 294). The excavator also noticed the special effort taken to make the gatehouse defensive with a funnel-shaped entrance passage and two guard-chambers, provision in the masonry for strong bars to secure the doorway and a stone cut ditch east of the entrance to control the access route to the gateway (ibid: 295).

At Caherconnell Cashel in the Burren the site measures over 40m in diameter and has a surrounding wall some 3m high in a good state of preservation (Comber 2010, 133). Radio-carbon dating from samples at Caherconnell show that the site was in use from between the 10th and early 17th centuries indicating a very long period of usage in an area that was a natural and strategic routeway through the Burren (ibid: 133). Caherconnell has provided evidence about Gaelic settlement in Ireland for both the high and late-medieval periods. The dry-stone house at Caherconnell probably dates from the fifteenth to the min-seventeenth century and very few native houses of this period have been excavated elsewhere (ibid: 159). The excavations at Caherconnell have provided knowledge of native medieval houses and in this case a reassessment of the dating of cashels (ibid: 163). According to Comber (ibid: 163) “Later medieval activity within cashels may represent a political as well as practical exploitation, with occupants seeking a physical and symbolic link with their ancestral past.”

It was noticed by an early surveyor, Westropp, who between 1896 and 1915 visited many of the Burren cathairs and found that different styles were used in the building of their walls, which he determined showed different periods of construction. The cathair wall at Cahermacnaghten was examined by Fitzpatrick (2009, 297) and it appears to have been built with a broad foundation leaning at an angle with a battered base similar to Caherahoagh, and it could be that additional levels of masonry were added to heighten the wall during the 15th or 16th century and very possibly this late medieval work may have coincided with the erection of the gatehouse. There is also evidence from a literary source, a poetic reference of Tadhg mac Dáire Mac Bruaideadha (1570-1652) that the caisel wall of Cahermacnaghten was limewashed as it is described as standing out in the landscape as a ‘limewhite fort’ of the O’Davorens (ibid: 297). Late medieval occupation is clear at Cahermacnaghten due to the presence of the remains of five rectangular houses within the caiseal. There are documentary sources from 1606 relating to a land partition deed concerning two of the O’Davoren family in relation to the houses and a kitchen house (ibid: 299). What is noticeable about the big house or tighe móir, is that the 12m by 5m building had rounded corners, a feature also seen at other cathair sites in the Burren. The other four houses were also used for living, dining and storage. According to Fitzpatrick (2009, 300) the total amount of living and storage space afforded by the five houses and the gatehouses would have been comparable to the amount of floor space within a small Tower House.

In conclusion, we can clearly see a trend throughout the Gaelic areas of Ireland in the late medieval period to inhabit enclosed settlements that were associated with a much earlier period. Evidence for continuous occupation is difficult to ascertain, but definitely it is conclusive that during the high and late-medieval periods Gaelic peoples made use of ringforts and other enclosed settlement forms, perhaps as mentioned previously in an attempt to reclaim their traditions and sense of ethnicity on an island that had become divided in two since the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the late 12th century. Curta (2007, 159) mentions the skepticism in some circles as to assessing the meaning of cultural traditions and medieval ethnicity by archaeological means alone. He goes on to state that symbols, style and power are key concepts for the anthropological study of ethnicity. Style is defined by Curta (ibid: 172) as “the pattern people make around a particular event, recalling and creating similarities and differences”. This concept can certainly be applied to the material culture of the Burren cathairs and how late-medieval occupants made alterations to their residences but ultimately kept living out very traditional and ancient Gaelic customs. The concept of power can be seen in how the minor elites of cathairs emulated the higher lords of the Burren in the style of their gatehouses which bore resemblance to the entrances of Tower Houses, and the very defensive nature of the gatehouses implied a sense of power for the occupants. Bartlett (2001, 39) addresses the fundamental question of the meaning of ethnic identity and makes the important distinction between race and ethnicity. It is important to realise that medieval writers “ethnicity was defined by and manifested in culture as much as, or more than, descent (ibid: 47). In Ireland and Wales, a “high degree of cultural unity coexisted with marked political fragmentation” (ibid: 53).

 

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