House - 16th/17th century, Cregg, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
House
In the townland of Cregg, in County Sligo, the remains of a 16th or 17th century house survive as a recorded monument, a structure that once formed part of the layered domestic and political landscape of early modern Connacht.
The broad dating range, spanning two centuries, reflects how difficult it can be to pin down vernacular or semi-fortified domestic buildings of this period in the west of Ireland, where documentary records are uneven and architectural fashions moved at their own pace.
The 16th and 17th centuries in Sligo were a period of considerable upheaval. The area was contested ground, with Gaelic lordships, Tudor administrators, and later Plantation settlers all leaving their mark on the built environment. Houses of this period in Connacht ranged from tower houses, tall fortified residences that were the preferred form of the Gaelic and Anglo-Norman elite, to more modest stone structures associated with lesser landowners or prosperous farming households. Without more detailed records, it is not possible to say with certainty which category this Cregg example falls into, or who built and occupied it, but its survival as a recognised monument places it within a wider fabric of post-medieval settlement that is often overlooked in favour of earlier prehistoric or early Christian remains.