Edited by Vicky McAlister and Terry Barry, Space and Settlement in Medieval Ireland consists of some of the papers presented to the annual Space and Settlement conference in Trinity College Dublin from its founding, in 2010, to 2013. The conference had a primary focus on medieval Ireland, qualified, we are told in the foreword, through studies of its “buildings, settlements, hinterlands, and regions” (xiii).
In the first chapter, Benjamin Hudson argues that the brief appearance of the term Lothlind in Irish sources during the ninth century has been confused by scholars with the Irish term Lochlann, originally meaning “Norway” and later “all of Scandinavia.” He argues convincingly that Lothlind is not a place but a term of derision masquerading as a place. The word Lothlind has connotations of evil marshes and fetid dog-fouled bogs and has parallels in other languages.
Patrick Wadden discusses what evidence there is for relationships between the Irish, the Hiberno-Norse and the rulers of the duchy of Normandy in the period around the early eleventh century. While an impressive quantity of material is discussed, the conclusions markedly merit the description by Oliver Creighton, author of the volume's foreword, that many of the book's chapters “pose many more questions than they resolve” (xiv).
The same may be said of Rebecca Wall Forrestal's chapter on early medieval Irish urbanization, which seems somewhat dated. For example, she discusses “future excavations” of lordly and ecclesiastical sites, many of which have already taken place. There is also a sense that she is not familiar with the latest work on the development of villages in England and the Continent.
Mary Valente studies the military fortifications and naval power used by Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair, who held the high kingship throughout much of the first half of the twelfth century. Her chapter features an interesting discussion on the term caistél, which first emerges during this period, with Valente following Terry Barry and Donnchadh Ó Corráin in seeing this as representing a new type of fortification. The counterargument by Tadhg O'Keeffe and Tom McNeill rejects this suggestion, however. The figures are hard to read and contain some mistakes, for instance locating Corca Dhuibhne in Cork instead of Kerry, and Móin Mór in Limerick instead of Cork.
Linda Shine studies the impact of interactions between the native Irish and Colonial settlers in the Kilkenny barony of Overk. She covers aspects such as the nature of a “frontier” and the question of which community, Gaelic or colonial, was responsible for building moated sites, mottes, and tower houses. She reaches the conclusion that settlement typology cannot be linked to ethnic origins. Her comment on martlands (78) is misconceived. The martland was a unit of assessment ranging from approximately 600 statute acres on good lands, up to 6,000 acres on uplands, and involving the payment of a bullock (mart) each year to the overlord. It continued in use in Kilkenny, Wexford, and Carlow into the early 1600s and many references to it may be found in the contemporary unpublished inquisitions post mortem (see K. W. Nicholls, “The Kavanaghs, 1400–1700” [part 3], Irish Genealogist 5, no. 6 [1979]: 730–34).
Rory Sherlock contributes a chapter on the Irish tower house hall, where he argues that in a majority of cases the upper or main room in tower houses was the public hall, and that halls could be above or below chambers or private family rooms, and he describes such halls as large and impressive. His arguments in favor of this—in opposition to the argument made by O'Keeffe that public halls were located in the bawn enclosure and not within the tower house itself—are not entirely convincing, especially given the increasing evidence for the existence of bawn halls significantly bigger in area than the main chamber or room of the tower house. However, Sherlock also draws attention to the phenomenon in Scotland of the existence of two halls in castles, a public or common hall in the courtyard and a lords hall in the tower, and this may offer a way forward between these opposing views.
Staying with tower houses we have Gillian Eadie's contribution, based on three tower houses in County Down. She defines the three main elements of the tower house as security, domesticity and ostentation, and she is clearly a proponent of the bawn hall argument rather than the tower house hall view. She concludes that “form is not necessarily related to function” (129).
Vicky McAlister takes a more general look at the tower houses of County Down in her study of the decline of the genre. She examines three possible reasons for the decline of the tower house: new buildings and styles, advances in warfare, and decline as a result of economic change.
Fiona Beglane contributes a study on deer parks in Ireland during the high medieval period. Beginning with a description of their function from international sources, she then describes a methodology for identifying these in Ireland. Such reconstructions have obvious value for recreating medieval manorial landscapes, and she makes several. Among other items of interest we learn that the deer in question were fallow deer, first brought to England by Normans from Sicily. While noting the Gaelic place-name element páirc she pays it no further attention. As this appears to derive from the Old French parc, hence a study would have been of relevance to her subject.
James Galloway's study of the economy of Drogheda and its hinterland in the later medieval period shows that Drogheda's hinterland was largely given over to arable farming and contained little woodland or livestock farming, a situation, he suggests, dating back to prehistoric times.
Damian Shiels contributes a detailed chapter on conflict archaeology and military history, and illustrates his methodology for reconstructing battlefield landscapes, in particular by a reconstruction of the battle of Vinegar Hill, County Wexford.
Overall this valuable volume contributes to several of the current debates in the context of space and settlement in medieval Ireland, and will be of use to historians, archaeologists, and historical geographers.
