Field system, Castlefarm, Co. Dublin

Co. Dublin |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Field system, Castlefarm, Co. Dublin

In a level field to the east of the medieval church and castle at Kilsallaghan in County Dublin, the faint geometry of an old field system is still readable in the land, though you would be unlikely to notice it on foot.

The boundaries survive as scarped banks and drains, the kind of low earthwork that tends to disappear under the eye of a casual visitor but becomes strikingly clear when viewed from above. It is on the Bird's eye viewer of Bing Maps that the pattern is most legible, the lines resolving into something coherent once you have the aerial perspective to read them.

Field systems of this type are broadly agricultural in origin, the organised division of land into workable plots, typically defined by drainage channels and raised or cut banks. The example at Kilsallaghan sits in close proximity to two other recorded monuments, the church reference DU011-011001 and the castle reference DU011-011004, suggesting this was once a managed agricultural landscape attached to a settled and probably ecclesiastical or manorial complex. The western half of the field has since been built over with stables and a roadway, so the original extent of the system is only partially preserved. Test-excavation and monitoring were carried out under licence number 09E0357, the findings reported by Meenan in 2009, but nothing of clear archaeological significance came to light during that work.

Kilsallaghan is a quiet rural townland in north County Dublin, and the field in question is not signposted or formally presented as a heritage site. The aerial view remains the most rewarding way to appreciate the layout, and spending a few minutes with a mapping tool before any visit will help orient you to what survives on the ground. The eastern portion of the field retains the better-preserved earthworks, so that is where the scarped banks are most likely to be visible, particularly in low winter light or after rain, when shadows and surface moisture tend to make subtle ground features easier to distinguish.

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Pete F
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