House - indeterminate date, Piercefield, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

House

House – indeterminate date, Piercefield, Co. Westmeath

In the low-lying grassland of Piercefield townland in County Westmeath, a rectangular outline pressed into the earth reveals that somebody, at some unknown point in history, chose to make their home inside a ringfort.

That detail is the quietly strange thing here. Ringforts, which are enclosed farmstead settlements typically dating from the early medieval period and defined by one or more circular earthen banks and ditches, were ancient structures even by the time most of medieval Ireland was being settled and resettled. To build a house within one suggests either an opportunistic reuse of ready-made shelter and boundary, or something more deliberate about the choice of place.

The house itself survives only as a site, its footprint measuring approximately eight metres on its longer axis and three metres across, oriented roughly north-northwest to south-southeast. A small square annexe, about one and a half metres across, sits to its northwest. Both features occupy the eastern quarter of the ringfort, with the house walls abutting the inner face of the enclosing bank, so that the bank itself would have formed part of the structure's boundary. A stream running some twenty-five metres to the north marks the townland boundary with Piercefield, and the surrounding land, though low-lying and grassy here, rises into hillier terrain to the north, east, and south. No date has been established for when the house was built or occupied, which leaves open a long span of possibility, from the later medieval centuries through to more recent historical periods of rural poverty and land pressure, when any usable enclosure might have been pressed back into service.

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 House – indeterminate date, Piercefield, Co. Westmeath. 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