Field system

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, located on a low rise in rolling grassland broken by limestone outcropping. There are good views, especially to N where ground falls gently for c. 150m towards an area of lowlying damp ground. Ground rises gradually to S.
Recorded by Lavelle (1994, no. 577) as follows ‘In undulating pasture, extending over 4000 sq.m. Banks of earth and stone make up a number of fields, hut sites and possible enclosures.’
A network of subrectangular or irregular-shaped field plots, which range in size from 25m by 35m to 60m by 70m, is outlined by low, grass-covered stone banks. The stone banks most likely represent levelled field walls. They incorporate large stones and boulders in parts. The stone banks tend to meander gently, following the natural contours of the local undulating terrain. Traces of cultivation ridges, on various orientations, can be seen within the field plots, and the area is dotted with small, low grass-covered field clearance heaps.
The remains are now enclosed within an irregular-shaped modern-day field (c. 240m NW−SE; c. 145m NE−SW), which is bordered by a drystone wall. The old field plots on the margins are fragmentary, indicating that the field system originally extended beyond its current confines, but there is no visible trace of it now in the surrounding modern fields. A possible house (MA118-137001-) is enclosed within one field plot, and there is a ringfort (MA118-137003-) at the NW edge of the field system.

Attached image: MA118-137----_01.JPG grass-covered stone bank

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 22 March 2020