Anglo-Norman Manorial Settlement In Ireland: an assessment

Abstract

The recent upsurge of interest in the historical geography of medieval Ireland has been characterised by the development of a number of settlement models, one of the earliest of which was the manorial village. Additional work has questioned the validity of this concept and alternative proposals including the manorial centre have been advanced. This concept is linked to a viewpoint which presents the Gaelic townland system as the principal constraint operating upon the evolving manorial settlement pattern of Anglo-Norman Ireland. In this paper, an attempt is made to assess the contributions made by the various proposals. The processes which might have induced nucleation are examined and the problems of verifying concepts from extant documentary and landscape evidence discussed. Consideration is given to events in medieval Wales and England as a source of analogous illumination and the issues of continuity are discussed at some length. The conclusion suggests that manorial settlement was characterised by spatial and temporal diversity.