Title: Maritime Lordship in Late Medieval Gaelic Ireland

Authors: Colin Breen1 and John Raven2

School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University

and

Historic Environment Scotland

Abbreviated title: Maritime lordship

Word count: 12,048

Correspondence: Colin Breen School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University, Northern Ireland, BT52 1SA, cp.breen@ulster.ac.uk

1 School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University, Northern Ireland, BT52 1SA, cp.breen@ulster.ac.uk2 Historic Environment Scotland Board, Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh, EH9 1SH, john.raven@hes.scot

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Maritime Lordship in Late Medieval Gaelic Ireland

By Colin Breen and John Raven

Abstract

By the middle of the 15th century a series of lordships had become firmly established along Gaelic Ireland’s western seaboard. These territories were controlled by a number of semi-autonomous kin groups, or septs. They were not homogenous entities but instead emerged under varying socio-political conditions and negotiated their relationships with society and landscape in multiple ways. Both physical geography and environment played a significant part in shaping each groups settlement and economic structures. While this was a relatively conservative society, rooted in the traditions of the past, the lordships were also outward in their social and economic outlook. Rather than being remote, marginalised places these groupings were embedded within the broader northwest Atlantic Social world, tied to the continent through trade, the fishing industry and the increasingly cultural inter-connectedness of society. However, by the close of the 16th century the lordships were under considerable stress following centuries of internecine conflict and increasing pressure from the English administration in Dublin and London.

By the middle of the 14th century the Anglo Norman lordship in Ireland, centred on Dublin and the Pale, was under increasing pressure. Weakened from the Bruce Invasion of 1315-18, and with both society and economy struggling to recover from the Great European famine of 1315-17, the borders of the colony came under pressure from resurgent Gaelic Irish lordships. A general decline in agricultural yields was recorded in 1320s and 1330s and the Irish Exchequer returns began to show a significant decline.1 A number of revolts in Munster and the midlands against the English administration threatened to further destabilise the country but these had been pacified by 1347. However, the situation was further compounded by the Black Death 1348-50, which resulted in population decline and the outbreak of a period of considerable uncertainty across society on the island of Ireland. Otway-Ruthven has argued that these years of disease weakened the Anglo-Norman colony to such an extent, that it never really recovered.2 This was especially true of the major trading ports of the east and south coast, including Dublin, New Ross and Cork, which were most susceptible to the plague. While these macro events served to undermine the border between the areas in the east of the country under Anglo-Norman control and the other Gaelic areas, more generally cultural interplay through social and economic interchange must also have been factor in breaking down boundaries.3

It was against this broad background of general unrest and upheaval that a series of maritime Gaelic lordships emerged, or at least re-emerged in some cases, along the northern and western seaboard of Ireland during the 14 th century (Figure. 1). These were a series of socio-political entities, with varying degrees of autonomy, who negotiated their

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relationship with Gaelic society in differing ways. Their geographies and political contexts allowed them to develop different responses to their individual places and in their relationships to both their landscape and associated the seascapes. They do not represent a singular, monolithic cultural entity, but were instead groupings that shared commonalties, but who were also variously and independently shaped by multiple internal and external influences. This paper traces the 14th -century expansion of these groupings and assesses their socio-economic structures as well as their patterns of settlement and landholding before their eventual collapse and deconstruction in the 17 th century. It is an attempt to provide an overview of our archaeological understandings of these groupings and position them within a regional cultural context.

The historical and archaeological study of Gaelic society remains a relatively new research area. Nicholls formative study of Gaelic society in the Middle Ages provided the basis for modern scholarship on Gaelic Ireland.4 For many years this effectively remained a solitary text but recent years have seen a number of important studies examining both the history and archaeology of Gaelic lordship. Simms’s Kings and Warlords examined the structures of lordship in the Gaelic controlled regions and produced a highly-nuanced study of the political, military and economic aspects of traditional ‘kingship’. 5 In particular this seminal study examined the process of societal change across Gaelic Ireland. O’Conor summarised existing knowledge of the archaeology of medieval rural settlement across Ireland and devoted a significant section of his study to settlement and society in the Gaelic areas.6 This resulted in the first comprehensive synthesis about our understanding of the settlement forms that existed and suggested future avenues for research. Building on the growing interest in this research area a major interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement in 1999, examined the state of knowledge pertaining to Gaelic Ireland and aimed to explore future avenues for research. Two years later, the published conference proceedings provided a benchmark for subsequent historical and archaeological research in the ensuing years.7 From a cultural landscape perspective Elizabeth FitzPatrick further examined the important role inauguration played in Gaelic society.8 Additionally she undertook an important review of aspects of settlement history through a detailed study of the continued usage of raths and cashels into the later medieval period.9 Pertinently, in the context of this paper, a number of studies have been published on individual coastal lordships including the O’Sullivan Beare10 and the O’Driscolls11 in west Cork and on the O’Fahertys in Connemara12. FitzPatrick undertook an important study of the small coastal landscape of the O’Dalys13 in west Cork while aspects of late medieval landholding were examined in the territory of the O’Dohertys in north Donegal.14 These studies have supported still developing understandings of the archaeological character of these lordships and the landscapes they occupied. However, read together, they tend to propagate a relatively homogenous and uniform model of maritime lordship. This overview instead suggests that while the lordships shared commonalities, they also had a series of differences including their basal economies, political status and military capacity. Both these

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differences and commonalities are reflected in the surviving architectural expressions of lordship and are evident in landscape archaeological evidence.

MIGRATIONS AND BEGINNINGS

By the close of the 12th century there were significant migrations under way in response to the original Anglo-Norman incursions and subsequent expansion into Ireland. We need to be careful when conceptualising the concept of migration in the context of medieval Gaelic society. For the most part this did not consist of large groups of people traversing the land as political refugees. This process should be seen instead as the displacement of political elites and their re-emergence in alternative territories. Paul MacCotter (2008) has referred to this process as decapitation, a process where pre-existing elites are usurped, or displaced by the new arrivals.15 In support of this conceptual framework we do not have archaeological evidence supporting mass migration, although it should also be noted that we. We have, however, not actually looked for it, and have little understanding of how such evidence would actually present itself. Stronger evidence comes in the form of the distinct paucity of contemporary historical narratives relating to large-scale migration. We would expect to find some mention of such phenomenon in the medieval written sources but they are effectively absent.

In west Cork the original O’Mahony territories were divided by the arrival of the O’Sullivans, from Knockgraffon in Tipperary, and the O’Donovans.16 The Tipperary grouping split into two groupings with the O’Sullivan Mór taking the Iveragh Peninsula in Kerry and the O’Sullivan Beare settling across the Beara Peninsula and in parts of Bantry in Cork. Both peninsulas are mountainous with few areas suitable for agricultural activity. Settlement was focussed along the narrow, lowland coastal strip of each area. This reconfiguration of territory also pushed the O’Driscolls south-westwards and confined them to Collymore and Collybeg17, a territory stretching from Castlehaven to Roaring Water Bay and centred on Baltimore and Sherkin Island. In Connacht the O’Flahertys had migrated west of Lough Corrib following the Anglo-Norman arrivals to Iarchonnacht in the last decades of the 13 th

century, a territory that included much of Connemara.18 They occupied marginal agricultural land in a territory bordered to east by mountains, bogs and large lakes. Immediately to the north, the O’Malleys controlled the land and seas of The Owles, a territory that would have incorporated the modern baronies of Burrishoole and Murrrisk along the western seaboard of mid-Connacht and included the islands of Achill, Clare, Inisturk and Inishbofin. Again, this is an area of poor land, dominated by bog and poor soils, but its sea area is dotted with numerous islands. Their presence in this area was documented from the early 12 th century but, following the Anglo-Norman invasion of Connacht in 123519, they came under the control of the de Burgo lords. Their effective neutrality during the invasion, following internecine tension with their O’Conor overlords, resulted in their retention of the lordship in the Barony of Murrisk.20 Further north, the O’Dowds of Sligo were a sublordship to the O’Conors in the late 13th century, but had expelled de Berminghams from Tireragh by

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1371.21 They controlled the coastal plain of the region. Here, the land can be flat in places and more suited to arable activity, when compared to the more southerly lordships.

In Ulster the O’Boyles, were a branch of the Cenél Conaill and are first mentioned in the annals in 1131.22 They held extensive tracts of land across southwest and north-western Donegal. However, they lost a large portion of their territory after 1360 following the arrival of the Scottish galloglass families, and were subsequently confined to a smaller territory centred on the castle of Ballyboyle close to Donegal town. By the close of the 13 th century the MacSweeneys had become a leading galloglass force in Ulster. However, despite their being recognised as possessing sufficient weight to merit intermarriage with Irish lordly lineages and the likelihood that they had a not-inconsiderable military presence in Ireland, the full extent of their involvement there remains obscure prior to their fall from grace in the eyes of the Scottish court, and their eventual expulsion before or during the Wars of Independence. It is not clear if they initially held land in Ireland, and it is possible they primarily acted as itinerant war bands. However, they played a crucial part in the O’Donnell succession conflicts (1333-80) and were subsequently granted the vassal chieftainship of Fanad in north Donegal. Claims that they held possession of this land beforehand are problematic. Cadet-members were granted the two further territories of Tir Boghaine and Tir Tuatha, at the expense of the O’Boyles.23 These territories occupy some of the poorest agricultural land in Ireland24. The land itself could never have supported a large population, dependant solely on subsistence activity.

While the O’Dohertys, vassal chief to the O’Donnell in Inishowen had a longer lineage in the region, they emerged as a sub-lordship in the 13th century, replacing the MacLoughlins.25 Andiles O’Doherty, chieftain of Ardmire (Ardmore), died in 1292 and this area became the centre of their territory.26 Nicholls suggests that it was only after the death of the Earl of Ulster in 1333 that they take control of all of Inishowen. 27 During the following decades their strength developed further and by 1342 the O’Doherty was said to have had a significant following with an unrivalled force of horse mounted men. One key aspect to their success in the 15th century was that they sided with Aengus O’Donnell, along with the MacSweeneys, during the succession conflicts in 1343.28 It was only after 1461 that Inishowen became firmly embedded with the lordship of Tír Chonaill.29 East of Lough Foyle the O’Cahans occupied most of the area of modern county Londonderry/ Derry. Although they were sublords to the O’Neill, they enjoyed considerable autonomy, due in part to their long presence in this territory. Oireacht-Uí-Chatháin, or the territory/ lordship of the O’Cahan was widely adopted as the title of their territory during the 15 th century.30 Its usage is indicative of an increasingly confident and resurgent sept.

By the late 14th century northeast Ulster saw a significant migration of groups from the Scottish Isles. In particular the southern Clan Donald, or Clan Iain Mhór, had acquired the Glens of Antrim following the marriage of Eoin Mhór with Marjorie Bisset around 1390.31 A high degree of interconnectedness existed between north Ulster and the Western Isles throughout the medieval period but the mid-16th century witnessed a second major

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movement into Ireland, when the Islay-based Clan Iain Mhór began to usurp the MacQuillans of the Route, a territory encompassing the area between the rivers Bush and Bann and extending southwards to Lough Neagh in north Antrim (Figure. 2). By the mid 1550s the MacDonnells (as they became known in Ireland) had pushed the MacQuillans out of the north coast and now effectively took over that lordship. These were then the major families who controlled the coastal territories of the west and north coast of Ireland during the Middle Ages. A number of other lordships were also present, including, for example, the MacWilliam Burkes in Connacht and other families in north Munster. These were effectively old English groupings and are not included in this study for a number of reasons including how these groups both were, and wished to be perceived. They also negotiated their relationship with contemporary society and landscape in differing ways, a study that lies beyond the current limits of this paper.

GAELIC MARITIME SOCIETY

These lordships, with the exception of the Antrim MacDonnells, were then well established by the beginning of the 15th century. They represent part of a much wider mosaic of autonomous or semi-autonomous lordships that existed across the Gaelic-controlled parts of Ireland. This a pattern that extended, to some degree at least, into Argyll and western Scotland. These territories were not unified under a single leader or king but did share common histories, cultural traditions and a Gaelic identity. They also had lordship hierarchies with a number of overlordships including the MacCarthys in Munster and the O’Neills and O’Donnells in Ulster. Below these were a series of sublordships. The O’Sullivans, for example, owed allegiance to their overlord MacCarthy Mór, while MacCarthy Reagh of Carbury was overlord to the O’Mahonys, O’Donovans and O’Driscolls. O’Sullivan Beara, sub-chief in the lordship of MacCarthy Mor, was obliged to serve as a marshall during his lord’s hosting, to support armed warriors who guarded the overlord, to share profits from traders and fishermen coming to his ports, to provide an annual feast for the overlord and to share in the upkeep and care for his hounds and horses.32 However, each sub group retained a large degree of autonomy. A number of client families in turn owed allegiance to the sublords so these was a highly structured, organised and hierarchical society.

This was also a patrilineal society (derbhfine), where land and title went to successors chosen within a kin group of male-lineage relatives.33 Genealogy was an important instrument in justifying claims to title. Professional lineages (ollamh) gained significant prestige through their role as retainers and reciters of group genealogies. Many genealogies were, however, artificially constructed in order to justify lineage and land-holdings. FitzPatrick (2004) has alluded to the strong emphasis placed on pedigree of place by lordships across Gaelic Ireland.34 These were people who used the past to give power to the present. Examples of looking to the past, in order to justify the present is prevalent across the maritime lordships. Once the O’Dowds had established themselves on the north Connacht coast in the 14th century they set about creating their own claim to this territory

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through the creation of a series of pseudo-historical traditions and genealogies.35 These were recorded in the late 14th- to early 15th-century Book of Lecan36 written by Giolla Íosa Mac Firbisigh at Lecan in Sligo. Similarly, the 16 th-century Leabhar Chlainne Suibhne claimed a MacSweeney lineage back to an 11th-century Cenél Eógain O’Neill king, Ánrothán.37 MacEiteagáin has argued that the O’Donnells moulded their lordship around the heroic figure of Brian Boru, the 10th-century Irish king who was said to have defeated the Vikings and aspired to be the supreme king, unifying the provinces of Ireland.38

We can see a similar process occurring in the use of places and sites of antiquity or historical importance. For example, the occupation by the O’Dohertys of Elagh castle, the ancient seat of Aileach, in the early medieval territory of the Cenél nEogain, represented a deliberate form of justification of place and presence by the family and was an architectural expression of lineage and justification of power (Figure. 3). The MacSweeneys, continuing a practice they exhibited in Scotland, reoccupied a suite of prehistoric/historic monuments, especially fortifications, as they established their lordship over new territories. This provided a pedigree and grammar in the landscape that demonstrated, naturalised and justified their dominance over and presence in the locality. From an intangible perspective Allen has argued that origin legends also played a part in legitimising sept claims of sovereignty.39 She linked the Cailleach Bhéarra, or Hag of Bearra, a mythical figure turned to stone and remembered in a large erratic standing at the western end of the Beara Peninusla, with the O’Sullivan Beares claims in that area (Figure. 4). Similarly, the past is a reoccurring theme in contemporary poetry. These bardic poets were employed to both praise and criticise lords and poems became a powerful political tool40. A common theme is the centrality of ancient Ireland and expressions of elite status including lords who were strong in battle and generous in hospitality. Such characteristics were held up as the key indicators of success, wealth and status and harked back to the glorious warriors of Iron Age Ireland that feature so strongly in medieval mythology. It could be argued that the medieval expressions of lordship were grounded in an image of lordship shaped from these stories. Physically the lordship was rooted in a feasting and drinking hall and a lord’s legacy partially lay in his ability to recreate the glories of his ancestors, whether real or imagined. These were families actively engaged in the mythologizing of their present. The past was not such a distant place in the minds of the medieval Gaelic Irish.

LORDSHIP STRUCTURES

Gaelic lordships were not always structured in the same way and were often influenced by highly localised practice or by models derived from external interaction with English and European ideals. However, a few broad similarities and themes can be identified. Each lordship had a nominated leader who had come to be known by his family’s surname by the 15th century, e.g. the O’Sullivan Beare, the O’Doherty etc. Most had an elected Tainiste, or deputy leader, who was often a son but who could also come from a recognised hereditary family, affiliated with the chief family. Different families served

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differing functions within the structure of the lordship. Certain families were renowned as scholars, specialising in law, poetry and medicine. The O’Dalys serve as a good example of how these could develop. They were originally from Westmeath, but branches of the family became established in a number of counties. In south Munster one branch had become well established on Sheeps Head in west Cork by the end of the 13th century and ultimately became the bardic family to the O’Mahonys.41 The senior branch of the family occupied lands at Dromnea and Farranamanagh and built a bardic school on Dromnea Hill, as well as a probable squat tower-house close to the seashore at the base of the hill. Interestingly this does not appear to have an enclosing bawn wall, a feature seen elsewhere in the Gaelic lands and indicative of a lord well established in trading activity. Elsewhere, the McClancy of Knockfin were the learned family to the O’Brien overlords in coastal county Clare while the O’Kellys served as ollamhs, specialising in history and poetry, to the O’Flahertys, where they held three half ballys (townships) of land.42

Certain families developed specialised skills and became renowned for these abilities. Both the O’Flahertys and the O’Malleys, for example, were known for their naval prowess. Their maritime skills had been well stablished by the twelfth century when they served as chiefs in command of O’Conor’s fleet during the high medieval period. In 1154 Toirdhealbhach O’Conor recruited a navy from Connacht’s coast,43 while a reference dating to 1235 indicates that the O’Flahertys had a naval capacity since at least the 13 th century.44 Other families would initially have had a naval capacity was well, with the O’Boyles and O’Dowds, for example, mustering a ‘great fleet’ to plunder Carbery in 1248.45 This capacity lessened considerably during the 15th and 16th centuries and most lordships came to rely on the Connacht families, or southern Hebridean groups to provide this capacity. While we have no surviving archaeological evidence for what their vessels would have been like, we do have limited surviving iconographic evidence and more reliable information pertaining to contemporary Scottish vessels. Their boats would most likely have been double-ended clinker built galleys with a single central mast, carrying between 12 and 24 oars. A double-ended vessel with 23 oar ports and a central mast was depicted as graffiti on the 16 th-century gatehouse at Dunluce Castle (Figure 5), while a 17th-century O’Malley plaque on the walls of Clare Island Abbey include the depiction of a double-ended, single-masted galley.

The MacSweeneys were the preeminent fighting force in Ireland. Hired originally as galloglass, (or mercenaries), they were operating in the country from their bases in Scotland from the middle of the 13th century. After their displacement from Scotland they became increasingly active in the Irish sphere and through a variety of mechanisms came to be awarded lands in Donegal, and which were accompanied by a number of privileges and benefits, such reduced rents, in lieu of their military and other services. They maintained this role into the 16th century, as evidenced by the MacCarthy Reagh of Munster having employment of a galloglass force from the MacSweeneys of Donegal in 1513.46 The 16th-century poet Tadhg Dall Ó Huiginn (1550–1591) wrote that Donnell , the MacSweeney of Fanad was famous for ‘waging conflicts, for reddening blades…..for seeking of killing and

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chasing, for desire of foray’ and was ‘responsible for protecting the men of Ulster’ and to ‘guard her bays and harbours’.47 Elsewhere, in a praise poem dedicated to Owen Óg MacSweeney he wrote that ‘As long as Mac Sweeny remains with the hot-bladed seed of Conall it will be profitless for a man to speak of a contest for the apple-branched land of the Gael’.48 Their military prowess and role as fighters would then have provided their primary income.

Similarly, the groups from the Clan Donald in Scotland had galloglass capacity49. By the 16th century they were employed in north Ulster to fight for various lords 50. These MacDonnells, as they became known in Ireland, functioned in a transboundary world, rooted in the dual traditions of Gaelic Scotland and Ulster. By the time the Clan Iain Mhór branch of the clan had become more fully established in north Antrim in the middle part of the 16th century societal circumstances had considerably changed. Gaelic society was under considerable strain and the MacDonnells proved themselves to have considerable flexibility in the manner with which their negotiated their way into positions of influence and landholding. They were discriminatory in terms of the practices they adopted, some methods reflected changes to landholding becoming more common in Gaelic Scotland, but also often adopting methods preferred by the Scottish or English crowns, depending on who appeared to be in ascendancy at the time. By the close of the century their primary means of income was through the mortgaging of land.

ECONOMY

While the lordships occupied what we would now regard as marginal or peripheral areas, this was far from the case during the late medieval period. The lordships maintained strong links with the European mainland. Many of the lords visited Rome and undertook diplomatic missions to European kings. Both ancient and modern Rome features repeatedly in bardic poetry. The O’Donnells in particular had strong links with the king in Edinburgh and were received there on a number of occasions. In a broader sense the lordships maintained strong contact with the wider European world through the fishing industry and trading activity. The waters off the western coast were highly productive fishing grounds during the Middle Ages, with herring and salmon being of particular importance. O’Neill (1987) has argued that from the mid 15th century onwards a highly productive herring fishery was established off the west coast.51 This corresponded to a documented rise in sea temperatures and an associated expansion of fish stocks between 1330 and 1600. 52 The documented phase of castle and friary construction during this timeframe along the western seaboard within the territories of the Gaelic lordships is then hardly coincidental as the fisheries were a considerable source of income for the lords. A report from 1569 reported that 200 vessels were fishing off the southwest coast each year, while three years later Humphrey Gibard report that upwards of 600 Spanish vessels were coming to Ireland’s western seaboard fishing grounds annually.53

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As the fishing industry expanded the Gaelic lords found a number of innovative ways with which they could exploit it. For the most part Gaelic society did not exploit the resource directly through actual large-scale fishing themselves, but instead levied tolls on the visiting fleets and established support facilities on land. The lords extracted money, victuals, harness and armour as tolls for the use of the fishing grounds off their coasts. 54 The O’Driscolls of west Cork charged visiting vessels a fee to anchor and shelter in their bays and imposed a food tax on the boats for the use of their fishing grounds, while an additional charge was imposed if they used shore facilities for drying the fish.55 Additionally the lordship had a victualing role and supplied vessels with meat and, presumably, fresh water. Across the southwest landscape analysis clearly shows that the maritime lords were siting their tower-houses at locations that facilitated coastal trade and communication networks. These nodes were built at places of important, safe anchorage and at locations where fishing grounds could be monitored. Archaeological evidence also suggests that temporary mercantile fishing centres were established during the fishing season, where trading deals could be completed and the administrative aspects of the industry could be facilitated. Excavations at a late medieval settlement cluster at Ballynacallagh on Dursey Island, at the mouth of Bantry Bay, uncovered evidence for such a location.56 Here a cluster of six houses had been constructed adjacent to a 16th-century fort close to a suitable landing place in Dursey Sound (Figure 6). Excavation at one of the houses produced an assemblage of exclusively Spanish material culture including roof tiles and olive jar ceramics, probably from Seville. The seasonal nature of the sites occupation argues that this was a cluster built to facilitate the European fishing trade.

In Ulster and Gardiner have recently demonstrated that increasing demand for fish across Europe led to the increased commercialisation of trade with Ulster and directly led to the establishment of permanent inland settlements linked to this trade.57 By the middle of the 16th century O’Donnell had become known as the ‘king of the fish’ due to his exchange of fishing rights for wine with foreign visitors.58 Not involved directly in the fishery himself, O’Donnell instead controlled the tolls of the fishing grounds and the land-based port and support facilities that would have been so vital for the visiting fleets. There is an interesting piece of historical evidence that recounts how this practice worked during the Tudor period. Bristol merchants would come annually to the O’Donnell territory and stay for two months or more at the port of Assaroe, trading goods and buying salmon.59 As in the southwest, the Ulster tower-houses were similarly situated at important landing points and at places that could control fishing and marine trading. Two of the O’Doherty coastal tower houses at Ramelton and Buncrana were located at productive salmon fisheries.60

The annual arrival of these fleets had important implications not only for the economy of the seaboard, but also for the cultural fabric of society. These fishers and traders would have spent extended periods of time living and working along this coastline, and would have brought their own cultural traditions and practices with them. This was not

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then an isolated and marginalised coast, removed from European society, but was instead a region subject to considerable external influences.

LANDHOLDING

Subsistence agriculture was a significant part of the economy of late medieval Gaelic Ireland.61 Correspondingly landholding was controlled and, as with many aspects of Gaelic society, was structured and subject to a range of traditional laws and regulations. Four primary categories of landholding can be identified. At the upper level of society, the lords held personal demesne land. Below this were the lucht tighe (‘People of the Household’), lands occupied by families in lieu of hereditary service (galloglass, ollamh, etc.). These territories are often referred to as mensal lands.62 There were then the lands of individual septs, held of owned in vassalage. Additionally, there were Termon lands, held by the Church. Income from the lands was derived from food-rents, hospitality and military obligations, as well as labour services. Most of this income was delivered as lords and their households perambulated through their territories, leading to a peripatetic and seasonally influenced form of lordship. Pastoralism lay at the core of the economy and most lords had large herds of cattle.63 Sheep and goats were also kept while pigs were kept in wooded areas. Arable activity was also conducted with wheat and oats the most common crop. Especially in marginal areas, where topography and weather exacerbated constraints on winter land-use activities, seasonal annual rhythms were pronounced. This complemented and probably contributed to the peripatetic nature of Gaelic lordship. The main exports across Gaelic Ireland were fish and hides, while import commodities included wine, cloth and weapons brought from English, French and Spanish merchants.

SETTLEMENT

Centres of lordship

Castles began to be built across the Irish landscape from the late 12 th century onwards, constructed primarily by the Anglo-Norman lords. Initially, Gaelic lords do not appear to have invested in such structures64, with a number of notable exceptions, but from the mid-15th century onwards the lords began to build tower-houses at strategic and historically important locations in their territories. These towers tended to be rectangular stone-built structures, three or four storeys high and often enclosed with a surrounding bawn wall. A range of other buildings may also have been present with, for example, a 1603 description of the O’Dowd castle at Rosslee states that it contained both a kitchen and a bake-house within its bawn65 (Figure 7). The coastal lords similarly invested in this type of structure and they emerged as the dominant architectural expression of Gaelic power and control along the western seaboard. While it could be argued that these towers would have appeared archaic, and somewhat limited, in terms of their architectural ambition, they are representative of the degree of conservatism that existed across Gaelic Ireland. The lords may have been reticent to invest in large expansive castles as there was no guarantee that their sons would inherit the building, or indeed that they would last their tenure given the

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frequency of conflict, territorial division and redistribution that occurred. Alternatively, this conservatism could result from a deliberate rejection of architectural forms which reflected European or Anglo-centric ideas about landholding and culture, in opposition to their own, and which they consequently found difficult to accommodate, or even inappropriate, in secular contexts.66

Each tower would have adequately served the lord’s needs, having ample storage and residential space for his immediate household. Feasting halls were an intrinsic element of Gaelic society, and were another aspect of continuity with the past. Tales of heroic warriors of old, feasting in halls, was a mainstay of entertainment and a feature of successful lordship. It may be that these lords, in choosing these strong points in the landscape and erecting towers, were partially recreating the mythical kingly centres of old. In a praise poem to MacSweeny Fanad, the 16 th-century poet Tadhg Dall Ó Huiginn mythologises the lord’s primary tower house on the shores or Lough Swilly ‘The rampart which the Fian of Fál held is again in Rathmullan, or else a castle similar in structure to that ancient one of Allen….Should it be that it is not Allen, this brilliant, marvellous rampart, this other dwelling is a fitting pledge for the bright house of Fionn of Allen’.67 These tower-houses came to represent the physical reincarnation of the ancient centres of power and demonstrated the constructed continuity of Gaelic power, maintained through the idealised blood lineages of these families. Halls became a common phenomenon within castles throughout the Gaelic Diaspora. In earlier castles, halls and residences were often twinned functions of the same spaces and structures. Over time these spaces became increasingly distinct and separate hall ranges were often built within castle enclosures. There is, however, limited evidence of external halls at the coastal tower-houses and it is likely that the first or uppermost floor in their respective tower-houses served this hall function.68 The limited space provided by some halls may also suggest that large scale public displays of lordship (including feasting, the taking and giving of land and loyalty, the dispensing of justice, etc.) were undertaken elsewhere and that these halls were for select gatherings.

The towers also served more prosaic functions of providing viewing platforms of their territories and offered a degree of defence during times of attack and crisis. The defensibility, or otherwise, of tower-houses has been the subject of much debate.69 Historical evidence suggests that they were rarely subject to sustained attack, but that, when not immediately abandoned on the approach of a force that appeared to be capable of mounting a sustained siege, as was surprisingly common tactic, they could be relatively well defended by a small garrison. Nevertheless, they were probably more ‘offensive’ in nature and mostly intended for displaying prowess. These towers represented strong points in the landscape and were the ultimate projections of local power along the seaboard. They served as administrative centres, as residences and as centres for hospitality. However, as we will see below, this was also achieved in multiple different ways.

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Monastic Patronage

While the tower-houses themselves may have been architecturally conservative, the coastal Gaelic lords were involved in more ambitious and expansive architectural developments. Their financing of the construction of a series of friaries of priories in particular demonstrated that the lords were not averse to bigger architectural statements. The 15th century saw the construction of forty Franciscan Third Order friaries in Ireland, mostly in the Gaelic territories of the west.70 These followed a relatively uniform architectural pattern. Proximity to a freshwater source often was a guiding factor in their location. Most were then built, renovated and refurbished over a period of many years. The foundations were usually centred around a compact cloister, although a number of western and northern examples, never appear to have had a fully enclosed cloister circuit. Each had a church, with adjoining domestic buildings including an east range, sacristy, chapter room, dormitory, kitchen and refectory. Fineen O’Driscoll established a friary on Sherkin Island between 1455 and 1462 while Dermot O’Sullivan Beare built one at Bantry in c.1460.71 Both Dominican and Carmelite foundations were also supported with the O’Flaherty funding the Dominican Priory of St Patricks, Tombeola in Galway in 1427. Immediately north, following internal dynastic struggles in the early part of the 15 th century, Diarmuid Bacach O’Malley and his wife, Maeve O’Conor may have been responsible for the foundation of Murrisk friary in 144772, (or possibly 1456 by Thady O’Malley), and the chancel at Clare Island Abbey (Manning 2007, 13). Scurmore, an Augustinian priory, was built by Thady O’Dowd in 1454, while O’Donnell funded the friary at Donegal town in 1474. A Carmelite priory was established at Rathmullan in 1516 by Eoghan Roe MacSweeeny, or at least by his wife Máire, while Killydonnelly Franciscan friary was founded in 1471 in the territory of Clanelly on the southwest shores of Lough Swilly, sometime Tainist to the O’Donnell.73 A Third Order friary was also established across the Lough at Balleeghan by the O’Donnells, close to a productive salmon fishery. Finally, the MacQuilllans built the Franciscan friary at Bonamargy, near Ballycastle in north county Antrim (Figure 8). Patronage of these sites was an important feature of Gaelic lordship and their siting reflected the location of the individual lords tower-houses. These friary establishments were indicative of a degree of wealth within the lordships but were another constructed factor in the historical connectivity of Gaelic lordship with the past, where they were keen to be seen as benefactors and defenders of the Church and faith. The friaries were located in areas of good and safe boat landing, allowing people largely dependent on sea communications to access them and conduct worship. The establishments, in turn, exploited maritime resources and appear to have used inter-tidal fishtraps as part of their landscape management strategies.74

Southwest Tower-houses

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However, while the friaries may have been architecturally expansive, tower-houses remained the primary expression of secular power in the landscape. Eleven tower-houses are known to have existed in the territories of the O’Driscolls in Cork, nine of which have standing remains.75 Seven of the towers are located at the coastline with a further four formerly positioned further inland but still commanding vistas over the territory to the sea. Each of the sites was envisaged as serving a number of functions when first built. Dunnalong, or the fort of the ships, was constructed on the northern shore of Sherkin Island and is likely to have served as the primary base for the control and operation of the O’Driscoll fleets. This location within the protected waters of Roaringwater Bay would have been the primary muster point for their vessels and also their core maritime administrative centre. Certainly, the extensive assemblage of European ceramics recovered from the nearby friary would support the historical references to extensive maritime trade in the Bay.76 Larger septs from the interior were also keen to retain a foothold in the maritime zone. The O’Donovans, of West Cork for example, built a tower-house on the shores of the sheltered harbour at Glandore and a 16th-century tower-house on the eastern shore of Castletownshend Bay. Sub-septs like the O’Cowhigs maintained a tower-house at Downeed on a narrow promontory at the entrance to Rosscarbery Bay. Here, Samuel 1998 has also identified the possible remains of a masonry hall structure immediately adjacent to the tower.77 Whether this was a feasting hall associated with the tower or a later 17th-century building remains to be ascertained.

Further west, Dunmanus Castle was principle residence of the O’Mahony Fionn, tainist to the O’Mahony. This 15th-century tower house was built on a rock outcrop overlooking a small sheltered inlet on the southern shores of Dunmanus Bay. Its siting was clearly deigned to control the O’Mahony interests in the Bay and is also reflective of the control this section of the O’Mahonys exerted over the northern Iveagh Peninsula. The chief seat of the O’Mahonys was Ardintenant castle first mentioned 1474.78 This three-storey, 15th-century tower-house was built within a pre-existing early medieval ringfort and is an example of the importance placed on historically important places and continuity with earlier power lineages across this region. The placename has been translated as the ‘Hill of the Beacon’ indicating the presence of a communications fire at this place. Certainly, the castle commands extensive vistas over Roaringwater Bay and the surrounding region. Sir George Carew wrote in July 1602 that he had taken ‘several castles on the Iveagh peninsula ‘strongly seated on rocks and necks of land. All were so neere unto the sea where ships may safely ride, and fit places for an enemy to hold as, namely Leamcon…..’.79 Both Leacom, a 15th-century tower-house, built on a promontory island, west of Schull and Rossbrin, built in the 15th century at a sheltered inlet 5km east of Schull, were two further O’Mahony castles, positioned to protect and control the family’s maritime interests (Figure 9). As with the majority of these towers, these were rectangular masonry structures containing three-storeys and positioned within metres of the shoreline.

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The building of tower-houses along the coastal strip is a noticeable feature of Gaelic lordship across the peninsulas of southwest Ireland. While this is indicative of the poor, and often mountainous quality of the interior, it was also a key indicator of the coastal septs’ maritime orientation. On Sheeps Head, the peninsula immediately north of Iveagh, only one possible tower-house is known, the O’Daly tower on the shore below Kilcrohane at Farranamanagh. Its relatively small size and its dimensions suggest that this may have been a lesser tower-house in the character of a number of Scottish late medieval towers. As has been previously mentioned this was the residence of the O’Daly ollamh and looks directly south across the bay to the O’Mahony overlord’s tower-house at Dunmanus. North of Sheep’s Head lies Bantry Bay and the Beara Peninusla, territory of the O’Sullivan Beares. As with the O’Mahony territory the O’Sullivan territories of the Beara and Iveragh peninsulas were intrinsically connected to the sea and its resources. The O’Sullivan Beares in particular were heavily involved with fisheries and trade with foreign vessels.80 Dunboy, overlooking the sheltered harbour of Bearehaven, was the chief castle of the lordship in Bantry Bay while Dunkerron, on the northern shores of Kenmare Bay, was the chief residence of the O’Sullivan Mór. A number of other tower houses were strategically positioned across both territories to both monitor and control coastal movement (Figure 10). Additionally, Clan Dermot, who had emerged as a subsept to the MacCarthty Reagh, held towers at Kilcoe near Schull and a now destroyed tower at Catletownbere.

Western seaboard tower-houses

On the exposed, and often inaccessible, coast of county Clare the O’Loughlin Burren built a series of coastal tower-houses. Unlike the lordships of the southwest, these Clare families did not have the advantage of large protected, or sheltered embayments. The Burren coastline is often dominated by high cliffs and dangerous, exposed rocky shores. Similarly, the terrestrial component of their lordships often consisted of poor agricultural land, dominated by exposed limestone plateaus with few areas suitable for large-scale pastoral activity. A number of towerhouses partially survive in this territory including the much ruined castle at Ballyvaughan and Shanmuckinish or Ballynacregga Castle, close to a protected inlet on eastern shores of Ballyvaughan Bay, on the approaches to the nearly wholly enclosed Bellharbour. The castle of Muckinish was probably later that Shanmuckish and stands on the shores of a noted oyster fishery at Pouldoody.81 On the southern shores of Galway Bay the O’Hynes built the 16th-century Dunguaire Castle overlooking the very sheltered Kinvara Bay close to the site of an early medieval centre of kingship (Figure 11). This was one of a string of coastal tower-houses running northwards from the Burren and was possibly the final Gaelic castle outside of direct control of the old-English families of Connacht and the mercantile groups in Galway city.

In County Galway the O’Flahertys had a series of castles distributed across two primary geographical areas. The first inland group was centred on lakes, such as Lough Corrib, while a second group of seven castles were built on the coast. Each of these towers

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played an integral part in the O’Flaherty relationships with their territorial sea. However, both their location and specific siting suggests that this mid-western seaboard lordship had a different approach to the sea, than that of the southwest lordships. A number of the sites require specialist knowledge to approach them safely by water, reflecting the sept’s marine capabilities and their reputation for involvement in naval raiding activity. Furthermore, their defensive capabilities would have been enhanced as they become increasingly difficult to access at low tide. Ard tower-house on the northern shore of Galway bay was built by a sheltered inlet. Nassens82 has recorded a local tradition that the O’Flaherty occupant dammed the stream to an adjacent lake to create a basin for his galleys. The evidence on the ground would not support the tradition but the adjacent freshwater lake could certainly have provided shelter for vessels if the boats had been pulled up slope into the lake. Bunowen, near Ballyconnelly is now largely destroyed but it would originally have located in a position partially hidden when approached from the sea within the complex waters and myriad of inlets across this section of Connemara coast. Built above a narrow sheltered beach it would have provided shelter for galleys and a cleared area of beach across the stream that runs adjacent to it does appear to have served as a beaching harbour. This was likely the main lordly centre of the sept. Other sites belonging to branches of the family included Doon Castle, built on a rock promontory in the narrow inlet of Streamstown Bay, and Renvyle Castle, built further north on the Connemara coast near the entrance to Killary Harbour which overlooks a shallow bay that offered sheltered anchorage as well as beach landing. It was strategically positioned adjacent to the routes passing this section of coastline and Inishboffin. This was a crucial waterway for vessels moving north and south along this section of coastline. Renvyle’s occupants were linked to the O’Malleys by marriage, whose territory lay immediately north of the castle.

The surviving O’Malley castles in the Owles provide a clear indication of where that septs interests lay and how they negotiated their relationship with the sea. The relatively small tower house on Clare Island was probably built in the early to middle part of the 16 th

century, if not slightly later (Figure 12). While the building is positioned adjacent to a sheltered beach and would originally have overlooked a rocky inlet, it was built in such a position that it had limited visibility from the sea. The tower is effectively invisible when the island is approached from the south and along certain easterly approaches. Similarly, Rockfleet castle, north of Newport, was built at the head of a sheltered inlet and does not enjoy extensive vistas of the surrounding seas. It seems that their original builders were interested in maintaining the relative exclusivity of their positions. The reputation of the O’Malleys as pirates and having specific specialisms in conflict at sea and for the supply of boats mirrors their consideration of physical location choice when deciding to place of their prestige residences and defended places. The Clare Island site, for example, could be seen more as a structure designed to act as an administrative centre for their fleet and as a muster place for their vessels and men during periods of conflict or raiding, rather than primarily as a place of lordly residence. However, it is possible that it was also designed to

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impress visitors who had been piloted through to the safe harbourage. It is also possible that this could have included relatively large fishing fleets.

On the seacoast of Tireragh, in north Connacht, the O’Dowds constructed a number of tower-houses along the coast. Unlike a number of the territories further south, this sept’s territories including a wide coastal plain with good agricultural land. It could be suggested that the quality of this land, and the areas associated access to inland communication routes, resulted in a less engaged relationship with the sea. Parts of the coastline are difficult to approach and it lacks the widespread availability of good landing places. Rosslee castle, a 15th-century three storey tower-house was built on the shore at the mouth of the River Easkey, 700m from a medieval church. The tower-house was well positioned to control this important river crossing and to control one of the few landing places on this rocky coastline. Further tower-houses existed at Pollacheeny, on the south bank of the mouth of River Leaffony, adjacent to the sheltered Pollacheeny Bay and at Lackan, both on eastern shore of Killala Bay, and both now destroyed. Both the Anglo-Norman castles as Inishcrone and Castleconor were also occupied for periods by the O’Dowds.

Northwestern tower-houses

Following the MacSweeney migrations to Donegal, the O’Boyles territorial holdings compressed dramatically. By the 15th century they were limited to a small section of coast directly southwest of Donegal town, where they built a now destroyed tower-house in the townland of Ballaboyle. While the adjacent shore could never have accommodated large scale shipping or trading activity, their continued presence on the coast was reflective of the importance placed on marine communications by the Gaelic lords. Their territories immediately bordered those of the MacSweeneys. In a 1592 report to Queen Elizabeth, Archbishop Miler Magrath wrote that the O’Donnell sub-lords of O’Doherty, O’Boyle and the three MacSweeneys ‘have their castles and lands by the sea-side’.83 The latter built at least five tower-houses, two of which, Rathmullan and Killybegs, have been destroyed. Elsewhere in south Donegal Rahan Near, a tower-house with bawn wall on a coastal promontory, first appeared in the historical records in 1524.84 Moross, a small tower in Mulroy Bay, was reputedly built in 1532, while the primary residence of MacSweeney Doe, Doe Castle, was first mentioned historically in 1544 (Figure 13). From cartographic sources it appears that Rathmullan was a typical tower-house structure located on the western shore of Lough Swilly, adjacent to a sheltered natural embayment. It is likely to be early 16 th-century in date on the basis of the establishment of the adjacent Carmelite Friary in 1516 by the MacSweeney Fanad. There were clearly less tower-houses in these territories in comparison to those lordships further south. This is reflective of the later arrival of the MacSweeneys to Ireland but also the particular set of hierarchies that existed across the three groups. While the chief members of the groups were obviously keen to reflect the architectural practices of the society they were integrating into, tower-house construction was not widely adopted.

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Lesser members of the groupings must have lived in alternative forms of housing. The early 16th-century Book of the MacSweeneys suggests that these would have included both raths and cashels, the enclosed farmsteads and prestige residences of earlier times.

O’Doherty presence on Inishowen had a longer pedigree and the tower-house on Inch Island was first mentioned in 1456.85 Additional coastal tower-houses were built at Buncrana at the mouth of the Crana River, which was a suitable landing place and which controlled the north-south terrestrial communication route on the peninsula.86 A related mid-15th-century tower-house was built at Ramelton but is now destroyed. Elagh Castle remained the primary O’Doherty residence. As with the O’Dowds in Mayo they also held the major 13th-century Anglo-Norman castle at Greencastle, on the western shores of Lough Foyle. Even though this was a substantial structure, it never became their central place of lordship. Place pedigree and location were of higher importance to the Gaelic lords than overt, expansive architectural statements made through the major castle building projects of former periods.

West of Lough Foyle, the O’Cahans held a large swathe of territory east to the River Bann. Unlike their western counterparts they did not build coastal tower-houses. This was partially related to the poor suitability of their coastline including the exposed dune system of Magilligan and the shallow mudflats of the east Foyle shoreline. The MacQuillans of the Route, a territory that included sections of the north Antrim coastline, occupied Ballylough castle near Bushmills and built Dunluce Castle. This dramatic fortification is unlike anything else built on the Gaelic seaboard. It was an enclosure castle, probably constructed in the last decade of the 15th century. Built on a high cliff it was not immediately associated with a suitable landing place and was built more as an expression of power and control across the seaways along and between the north coast of Ulster and west coast of Scotland. Its political and cultural orientation encompassed its Ulster holdings but also looked northwards towards the southern Hebrides and Argyll.

Dunluce was later refurbished by the MacDonnells of Islay, who also built Kinbane castle, when they arrived in Ulster in the middle of the 16 th century. The additions to Dunluce and the tower at Kinbane are more Scottish in character and design than their western neighbours. Along with a small number of MacDonnell castles, which are really no more than fortified headlands, e.g. Dunineaney, none are associated with good harbours. Indeed, a number are located on cliff tops and relatively inaccessible from the sea. All, however, are located where they would have been provided with wide views along the Ulster coast and over to Islay. Partly, this pattern may reflect that the better harbours along the Ulster coastline had already been populated with castles, prior to the MacDonnells arrival: e.g. Dunseverick, Portrush, Rathlin or Red Bay87. However, it is equally likely that the differing choice in castle location and form reflects differing cultural and political contexts between Irish lordships who were long established prior to the main phase of castle building from the 15th century onwards and those of new arrivals, displaced from Scotland, where Gaelic lordship had begun to take a slightly different trajectory, and muscling in on new

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lands, in the mid-16th century88. The extent to which the MacDonnells can be said to reflect the general pattern of Gaelic maritime lordship is then problematic.

Settlement patterns

While tower-houses were the most tangible architectural expressions of coastal lordship, the settlement patterns and residences of people of lower standing in society is more poorly understood. These sites have been subject to limited archaeological investigation so our primary sources for the reconstruction of these patterns remain historical and cartographic sources. One of the most useful sources from this perspective is the 1560s map89 of the territory of the O’Sullivan Beare (Figure 14). This appears to be a highly accurate map of the nature and composition of settlement across this territory and can be used to reconstruct the cultural landscape of the lordship in the 16 th century. Given the relatively stable nature of both the O’Sullivan Beare lordship, and its related lordships, it is probable that the form of settlement depicted here would have been very similar along the western seaboard. The tower-houses of the lordship provide the focus for settlement clusters with adjacent small houses shown at Carriganass, Ardea, and Dunboy towers. Similar clusters of houses are depicted around church sites, with parish churches showing particular concentrations of five houses or more. These were likely to have been creats, small sub-circular one-roomed houses, of post and wattle construction, with sod or turf roofs.90 About 35 clusters are shown, evenly distributed across the Beara region, 27 of which are shown as clusters separate from tower houses or churches. It is these rural clusters which must have contained the majority of the population in late medieval Ireland, yet these settlement forms remain highly enigmatic and very poorly understood. Each of the clusters on the late 16th-century map is illustrated with a single large rectangular house surrounded by between four and thirteen creats. The partial remains of one of these structures was excavated at Blackrock, near Bantry, and underlay a late 16 th-century English plantation settlement.91 Its excavated footprint suggests that the original structure was about 6m in length, was sod-built and sub-rectangular in plan with rounded corners. The larger central building must have contained the house of the community leader. Interestingly, while the accuracy of the map is problematic in a modern cartographic sense, the distribution of these secular and non-lordly clusters would appear to correlate broadly with the modern distribution of small towns, villages and clachans across the more recent historic landscape, suggesting continuity in settlement location into the early modern period. A gallows is depicted at the entry into the territory near the Abbey from the adjacent O’Mahony lands. Not only must this place have served as a centre for justice but it also stood as a physical reminder of where power lay. A number of wooded and mountainous areas are also shown but indications of enclosure are absent.

A second model for lordship is potentially found at Gleninagh, in the Burren (Figure 15). We recognise that one of the key features of these lordships is that territory was defined by the physical geography of a place. We can define the limits of the territories of many sub-lords and sub-septs through an examination of this geography and the nature of

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the surviving archaeology. Gleninagh Castle, possessed by the O’Loughlins in 1574, was built close to the shore 5km west of Ballyvaughan medieval church. It was constructed on a narrow strip of coastal agricultural land, no more than 10km in width and fringed by the limestone plateaus of the Burren. On the first edition 1830s ordnance survey map of the area a small clachan, called Cregg, is illustrated close to the church and castle. Given the settlement continuity that exists in the O’Sullivan Beare territory, it is tempting to suggest a similar pattern here and that this clachan is indicative of older settlement. This area is likely to represent a small coastal territory, its borders effectively defined by the limestone plateau to the east and by the sea to the west. The minor lord occupied the tower house, while the clachan represents the location of a medieval settlement cluster. Further clusters probably existed closer to the church and castle while a number of other isolated house sites were dotted along the coast and further inland. While there is no harbour or sheltered inlet in the territory, boats would still have been active on this exposed coastline. Thomas Cooke visited this coastline in 1842-43 and recorded his observations in a series of scrap books now held by Clare County Museum. In them he recorded that the ‘sea beats within a hundred yards of the Castle's base, on a flat, but bold, and rocky coast. Here are more than a dozen canoes [currachs] drawn up high and dry upon the green turf: they are all made of ozier ribs, covered on the outside with patched canvass, and form a tiny and frail fleet, ever ready to brave the surges of the deep, when opportune times for fishing offer’. A number of terrestrial route-ways would also have traversed this area, including a both a north-south route-way along the coast and a route-way eastwards through valleys in the adjacent limestone hills.

A third model may also incorporate the impact that a primarily pastoral economy may have had on land-use and occupation. This is particularly relevant for the largely marginal areas occupied by most Gaelic maritime lordships, where grazing was limited in terms of: the capacity of numbers of stock it could sustain; its distribution in boggy, rocky and/or upland terrain, and; seasonally imposed constraints, though accessibility and fertility. 16th- and 17th- English commentators keenly advertised what they characterised as a Gaelic Irish disposition to nomadry92. While their motives, to demonstrate the backwardness of the Irish and to build a case for cultural and economic intervention, should not be downplayed, it seems probable that many upland communities were frequently on the move, on seasonal rounds between different grazings.93 This is oftern referred to as booleying, but the term may cover up a myriad of different practices, from compex patterns of regular movement to a more simplistic flitting between lowland farms with winter settlements and summer pastures. The extent to which the great creaghts, where whole lordships, communities and herds moved together, reflects a rather extreme example of such practices or large scale displacement caused by the socio-political collapse in the 16 th

century remains unclear, however. Transhumant lifestyles resulted in the construction of small, temporary structures, either primarily turf built or using wattle and thatch, with little structural integrity, often built repeatedly in the same location, and which leave few tangible remains. Those turf footings or spreads of stake-holes that are identified are often

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hard to date, making analysis highly problematic. Nevertheless, although not fully understood, booleying proved a highly resilient and sustainable way of exploiting the Irish coastal landscape and may have formed the primary settlement throughout the middle ages.

DEMOGRAPHICS

In terms of demographics we have no accurate measure of population levels across these lordships as no census was ever undertaken. However, there are a number of ways with which we can calculate this, at least in a loose indicative manner. Obviously each territory was different and both its landscape and economy would have supported varying levels of people. In a military intelligence report published in c.1490, the numbers of horsemen and kern, or lightly-armed foot soldiers without formal training, within the Gaelic lordships was listed.94 The Elizabethan administrator, John Dymmok, described a kern as ‘. . a kind of footman, slightly armed with a sword, a target [round shield] of wood, or a bow and sheaf of arrows with barbed heads, or else three darts, which they cast with a wonderful facility and nearness, a weapon more noisome to the enemy, especially horsemen, than it is deadly’.95 While this is a useful document in terms of illustrating the military capability of the lords, it can also be used to provide a very broad indicator with which to estimate population size. A 16th-century MacSweeney genealogy records that in the 14th century the MacSweeneys were to provide two galloglass to their overlords for every quarter of land provided. The size of a quarter of land varies throughout the Gaelic world but there seems to be a broad correlation with this unit and a grouping of four or five households, or, rather, house or family units.96 What was expected of the MacSweeneys would therefore be broadly similar with what was expected in Argyll, where a charter of 1295 records that every two pennylands (the local equivalent to a household unit) was to provide a fighting man “as was customary there”.97 If we take a household to be around five individuals, to include a minimum of women, children, older people and non-kern, we can then multiply the number of men raised by a particular lord in a defined are by a factor of ten to get a very tentative population estimate for that area.

O’Driscoll was listed as having six horse and 200 kern, O’Mahony had 16 horsemen and 120 kern, while O’Sullivan Beare had 16 horse and 200 kern. These are similar numbers and reflect the comparable nature of the territories in terms of landscape, economic orientation and size. Using the calculation above we reach a population level of a minimum of 2000 people, but a higher figure may be likely. The 16 th-century map of Beara would support this population estimate. 35 settlement clusters are shown, with an average of five houses each, suggesting there were c.175-200 houses across the territory. If we accept that each household consisted of between 5-8 people, this gives us a maximum population of 1600. This correlates with the numbers given in the 1490 report. In the same source O’Loughlin of the Burren had 20 horsemen and 100 kern while in Connacht O’Flaherty is

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listed as having 14 horsemen and 100 kern and O’Malley had 16 horsemen and 200 kern. In Ulster O’Cahan had 60 horsemen98 and 100 kern and MacQuillan of the Route had 20 horsemen and 100 kern. The various MacSweeny territories owed tributes of to Aodh Ruadh II O’Donnell in the last decade of the 16th century of 300 galloglass while O’Doherty owed 60 horsemen and 120 soldiers.99 By 1600 Sir Henry Docwra estimated that O’Doherty could raise upwards of 550 men in total100.

END OF AN ERA

Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries the Gaelic groupings across Ireland participated in a political environment of continually changing alliances, feuds and internecine warfare. Constant internecine conflict during the late medieval period generated inter sept suspicion and discouraged concerted cooperation to any great extent. These were groupings primarily interested in the maintenance of the old social order and the preservation of their lands and standing in society. Additionally, these centuries of conflict had undermined the stability of particular groupings. In north Connacht the power of the O’Dowds had been significantly reduced by the 16th century. Subsequently this allowed both the O’Donnells and MacWilliam Burkes to emerge to the fore.101 The MacQuillans in north Antrim power had been significantly undermined by the MacDonnells by the 1560s, after which the progress of their loss of influence accelerated and they lost much of their territory to the displaced Islay clan by the end of the century. To further compound the socio-economic and internal pressure the septs were under, the Crown and government in London and Dublin began to take an increasing interest in Ireland, prompted both by its resources and their increasing irritation with the threat the groups posed. By the later decades of the 16th century the Tudor administration had, consequently, become increasingly intolerant of Gaelic society.102 The Desmond Revolts (1569-73 and 1579-83) in Munster were initially an attempt to preserve the independence of the Gaelic lords in the south and contained an element of religious confrontation. The defeat of the Geraldines prompted the Crown to engage in a policy of plantation of loyal settlers across Munster and resulted in the loss of large tracts of territory including the MacCarthy Reagh lands along the southwest coast. The settlers were encouraged to settle in permanent dwellings and focus on arable or mixed agriculture, at the expense of traditional patterns of seasonal exploitation and pastoralism.

It was in Ulster where Gaelic power remained strongest throughout much of the second half of the 16th century. This autonomy and the increasing connections of the lords with Scotland served to focus the Crown’s attention on these northern lands. John Perrott, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1584-88, recommended that ending the system of Gaelic captains and tainistes could be achieved by taking their land and sometimes re-granting it, and by forcing them to adopt primogeniture which would ‘breed quietness, obedience and profit’.103 The volatility in Ulster came to a head when Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Hugh O’Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell revolted in 1594, signalling the onset of the Nine Years

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War.104 While this revolt was sometimes interpreted as a religious war, and a rising designed to achieve national unity, it should instead be primarily seen as an attempt to safeguard the traditional system of Gaelic landholding and Gaelic political society. The war was to end following the battle of Kinsale in 1601 with English victory and the beginnings of the collapse of the old Gaelic order. Many of the leading Gaelic lords were to subsequently leave for the European continent in 1607 and the Ulster Plantation was introduced, with the intention to pacify and bring ‘civility’ to the Irish. This was, of course, embedded in the complex colonial discourses of the time but can ultimately be seen as a cultural justification for the taking or lands in order to exploit the province’s natural resources.

This, however, should not be seen as an end date in itself of Gaelic society, but rather the beginning of the end. While many of the lords lost their autonomy and sole ownership of their territories, significant numbers were re-granted their lands and were maintained as tenants. While a number of the O’Driscolls, for example, left for Spain in the first decade of the 17th century, other members continued to live on lands in their former territory into the middle of the century as tenants of the new mercantile elite.105 The O’Mahonys lost most of their land and castles but remained as tenants while a number of leading O’Sullivans survived in a similar manner. The new plantation regime recognised that if it dramatically undermined society then their new mercantile ventures were effectively doomed to fail. Across the southwest the pre-existing economic model effectively continued with maritime trade and fishing constituting two pillars of the new order. Rather than any sense of profound change, we instead see a major intensification of maritime industry with centres like Baltimore and Bantry being redeveloped to participate in the expanding trade. This intensification of activity was also witnessed across the countryside where widespread enclosure in Munster was adopted and encouraged.106 This process of land division represented a major change across these lands, in areas where landscape was previously largely unenclosed. Architectural forms also changed in response to the new arrivals with new forms of fortifications being built and new types of houses, more reflective of English traditions, emerging. Many of the tower-houses became obsolete and new houses were often built directly adjacent to these structures such as at the O’Boyle tower-houses in Donegal. One of the biggest changes in society was in its material culture. The prioritisation of English markets over European ones led an increasing predominance of English commodities including pottery, clay pipes in the archaeological record. Locally produced material is also increasingly being recognised as playing a significant role in the connective processes of interchange.107

CONCLUSION

Gaelic society along the western and northern seaboards of Ireland was not a homogenous entity but the familial groupings who occupied these territories shared a common set of traditions and characteristics. While these were effectively autonomous entities they were intrinsically bound together through cultural practice and elements of a shared identity.

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There was considerable enmity amongst the groups, and in some cases they appear to have been engaged in almost perpetual conflict, they were also bound together by marriage and kinship. Indeed, this complex mosaic of intermarriage and fosterage became so interwoven that it is hard to identify any sept that was not in some way tied to another through these forms of alliances. Marriage was used as a form of diplomacy between the septs and must have resulted in a proactive role for individual women in society who came to these arrangements as powerful people in their own right, enjoying considerable agency and voice in everyday practice. Ellis has further argued for a degree of interdependence between the Gaelic regions of Ireland and the Western Isles.108 This was expressed in a number of different ways, socially, politically and economically. These connections encourage us to think about Gaelic society in a non-insular manner. This was not a society, bound geographically or culturally, by the physical limitations of the island of Ireland, but was instead a society that was actively embedded within the broader cultural sphere of the north Atlantic social world. These maritime groupings can then be viewed from a number of differing perspectives, the local, the regional and the international. At a local level the septs occupied geographically defined territories along the coast and had varying relationships with the sea. While they enjoyed a degree of autonomy, we cannot understand their societal structures and landscape organisation without placing them within the wider frameworks and networks of Gaelic society across Ireland and further afield. Ultimately the end of the Gaelic Order in the 17th century resulted in the eventual collapse of the lordship structures and power. New forces and new thinking and traditions now began to shape human interactions with the coasts and seas of the island.

24

Primary Sources

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Cal. Carew MSS Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts. Brewer, J.S. and Bullen, W. (eds.) (I London,1867; II London, 1868)

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Captions/ figure list

FIG 1 Map of the late medieval maritime lordships along the western and northern seaboards of Ireland. The borders of the Pale are approximate and relate to its 15th-century extent. Map by C Breen

FIG 2 The 16th-century territories of the Clan Iain Mhór, encompassing Islay, sections of Jura and northeast Antrim.Map by C Breen

FIG 3 An early 19th-century drawing of Elagh Castle, Co. Donegal by Captain William Smith.

FIG 4 The Cailleach Bhéarra, a glacial erratic located on the Beara Peninsula, Co Cork. Photograph by C Breen

FIG 5 Ship graffiti from the 16th-century gatehouse at Dunluce Castle, Co Antrim. The image represents a typical double-ended 16th-century galley, with a single mast and sail.Drawing by C Breen

FIG 6 The settlement cluster at Ballynacallagh on Dursey Island, Co Cork. Plan by C Breen

FIG 7 Rosslee Castle, Co Mayo.Redrawn from a 1779 image by Thomas Beranger and associated 1792 plan of Rosslee Castle published in Grose’s Antiquities.

FIG 8 The Franciscan friary at Bonamargy, near Ballycastle in north county Antrim.Detail of early 19th-century drawing by Captain Mark Kerr (Courtesy of Hector McDonnell).

FIG 9 The late 15th-century tower-house at Leacom, Co Cork. Photography by C Breen

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FIG 10 The territories of the lordship of the O’Sullivan Beare. Map drawn by C Breen.

FIG 11 The 16th-century Dunguaire Castle, overlooking Kinvara Bay, probably replaced at earlier tower-house located immediately to its south. Photograph by C Breen

FIG 12 A late 19th-century photograph of the tower-house on Clare Island, associated with the O’Malleys.National Library of Ireland.

FIG 13 The small 16th-century tower-house at Moross, Co Donegal, associated with the MacSweeneys.Photograph by C Breen

FIG 14 1560s map of the territory of the O’Sullivan Beare, Co Cork.(PRO MPF/1/94).

FIG 15 Proposed layout of the settlement landscape associated with Gleniagh tower-house, in the Burren, Co Clare.Plan drawn by C Breen

31

1 Barry 1987.2 Otway-Ruthven1968, 267.3 O’Keeffe 1996.4 Nicholls 1972.5 Simms 1987.6 O’Conor 1998.7 Duffy, Edwards and FitzPatrick 20018 FitzPatrick 2004; FitzPatrick and Fenwick 2001.9 FitzPatrick 2009.10 Breen 2005.11 Kelleher 2007.12 Nasseens 2007.13 FitzPatrick 2013.14 Ni Loingsigh 1994.15 MacCotter 2008.16 Nicholls 1993, 165.17 Kelleher 2007, 133.18 Nassens 2007, 218.19 AC 123520 Manning 2007, 12.21 Ó Muraíle 2001, 233.22 MacGiolla Easpaig 1995, 788.23 Simms 1987; 2007.24 Gilmore 196525 Simms 1995; McErlean 2011.26 AC 1292. 8.27 Nicholls 1972.28 AC 1343.13.29 MacEiteagáin 1995, 203.30 Simms 1987, 69.31 Kingston 2001, 101.32 Simms 1987, 114.33 Nicholls 1972; O'Croinin 1995.34 FitzPatrick 2004.35 Ó Muraíle 2001.36 RIA MS 23 P 2.37 Walsh 1920.38 MacEiteagáin 1995.39 Allen 2013.40 Simms 200141 FitzPatrick 2013.42 Simms 1987, 87.43 Simms 1987, 118.44 AC 1235. 12.45 AC 1248. 12.46 Nicholls 1993, 193.47 Knott 1922, 131.48 Knott 1922, 127.49 Cannan 201050 Kingston 200151 O’Neill 1987.52 Breen 2005, 114.53 Cal. Carew MSS, 1572.54 Simms 1987, 137.55 O’Mahony 2000.56 Breen 2005.57 Gardiner and McNeill 201658 Cal. Carew MSS 1.308.59 MacEiteagáin 1995, 207.

60 McErlean 2011.61 Simms 1978.62 Nicholls 1972.63 Cosgrove 200864 O’Conor 2005; 1998, 75-77; McNeill 1997, 72-74, 157-6465 O’Rorke 1889.66 As we will argue, Gaelic lords found no similar challenges in adopting informed architectural flourishes when building ecclesiastical buildings, where similar cultural tensions did not exist67 Knott 1922, 131.68 Sherlock 201169 McNeill 199770 Barry 1987.71 Ó Clabhaigh 2012.72 Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 300.73 McErlean 2011.74 O’Sullivan 2001. 75 Kelleher 2007.76 Kelleher 2007.77 Samuel 1998.78 Samuel 1998.79 Cal. Carew MSS 1602.80 Breen 2005.81 Breen 1995.82 Nassens 2007.83 Simms 1995, 191.84 Lacy 1987.85 AFM, 1456.86 McErlean 2011.87 Although undated the Scottish character of Red Bay may suggest what remains is primarily a MacDonnell rebuild.88 We intend exploring these differences in future articles so will not go into this further at this point89 PRO MPF/1/94.90 O’Conor 2002.91 Breen 2005.92 Kew 199893 See Horning 2004; 2007; Gardiner 201094 Price 1932.95 Cannan 2010.96 Raven 2005.97 Thomson 2002, 35.98 This relatively high number is probably associated with the inland character of much of their territory, the nature of its topography and the relatively good quality of agricultural land present. 99 Simms 1995, 188.100 While men had a military obligation, interrogating the historical and archaeological evidence of women in this

society is more difficult and is something we intend returning to in a future article.

101 Ó Curnáin-Ó Siordáin 2013.102 Morrissey 2004.103 Cal. Carew MSS 1589-1600, 27.104 Morgan 1999105 Kelleher 2007.106 Breen 2005107 Horning 2013108 Ellis 1998, 250.