Field system, Aghowle, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Field system, Aghowle, Co. Wicklow

Aerial photography has a habit of revealing what the ground refuses to give up easily, and the hillside at Aghowle in County Wicklow is a good example of that principle at work.

Beneath a dense cover of ferns and gorse, an extensive field system runs roughly east to west across the hill's summit and down its eastern slope, the kind of agricultural infrastructure that speaks to a period when this now-overgrown terrain was actively worked and managed. The vegetation has reclaimed most of it, but the underlying structure remains, and once you know what to look for, the landscape begins to make a different kind of sense.

The field system is composed of stone walls, roughly 1.8 metres wide and standing between 0.6 and 1 metre high, which is substantial enough to suggest they were built to last. Towards the northern end of the system sits an irregular field, approximately 100 metres north to south and 50 metres east to west, with an enclosure set within it and another enclosure immediately to its west. Running south of this irregular field is a long, narrow field stretching around 220 metres east to west and only 30 to 40 metres wide, a shape that suggests deliberate organisation of the land rather than casual boundary-making. Scattered to the west and south-west of the irregular field are a number of clearance cairns, low mounds of stone gathered and piled by whoever was farming here, the inevitable by-product of clearing rocky ground to make it workable. Some of these cairns fall within the long east-west field, which gives a sense of how the clearing and the field-making happened together, as an integrated effort to bring difficult upland terrain into use. Further walls appear higher up towards the summit, suggesting the system extended well across the hill before it was abandoned to the gorse.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Field system, Aghowle, Co. Wicklow. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement