Location: Society for Medieval Archaeology Postgraduate Colloquium, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

Event Date: Feb 2010

Location: Space and Settlement in the Middle Ages 1, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Event Date: May 2010

Location: People, Places and Memory: Early Modern Ireland conference, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Event Date: Aug 2010

Location: 19th European Archaeological Association Congress, Den Haag, The Netherlands

Event Date: Sep 2010

In this paper the position of the late medieval tower house within commercial networks will be examined, as well as how these monuments contributed to the wealth and status of regional ports. Using archaeological and... more abstractIn this paper the position of the late medieval tower house within commercial networks will be examined, as well as how these monuments contributed to the wealth and status of regional ports. Using archaeological and historical evidence a commercial function for tower houses located in regionally important ports has been proposed. Furthermore, the role of now rural tower houses as points along networks that contributed to the economy of such ports will be examined, exploring how this function could complement the manorial function of the tower house. The paper will focus on the evidence from two late medieval ports of comparable status – Ardglass and Strangford in County Down – and discuss the differences between the commercial networks that each settlement could draw upon.

Location: Space and Settlement in the Middle Ages 3, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Event Date: May 2012

This paper will address many of the issues raised in session four, ‘Ports and maritime oriented societies of the later middle ages’. More specifically, it will discuss the role of the tower house in the late medieval... more abstractThis paper will address many of the issues raised in session four, ‘Ports and maritime oriented societies of the later middle ages’. More specifically, it will discuss the role of the tower house in the late medieval Irish maritime economy. The position of this monument within maritime commercial networks will be examined as well as how they contributed to the wealth of regional ports. Research has discovered historical and archaeological evidence for port settlement (of a regionally significant status) involvement in trade within the Irish Sea Region and for nationally important fishing activity. Landscape evidence has suggested that rural tower houses formed points along economic networks that fed into these ports. Furthermore, a number of sites located within these settlements appear to have functioned either as commercial buildings or as a dual-function structure (residence and commercial site). A regional case study within Ireland is employed to illustrate these research findings. This case study uses specific examples of tower houses and late medieval port settlements to illustrate how tower houses acted as manorial centres of production and distribution, signifying how late medieval rural settlements could participate in geographically extensive trade routes.

Location: 5th International Research Congress of Medieval and Modern Archaeology, Helsinki, Finland

Event Date: Sep 2012

"The proposed paper follows on from some of the major issues considered in my recently completed interdisciplinary Ph.D. dissertation. This research has used the late medieval Irish tower house form of castle as an e... more abstract"The proposed paper follows on from some of the major issues considered in my recently completed interdisciplinary Ph.D. dissertation. This research has used the late medieval Irish tower house form of castle as an entry point in investigating human action within a multi-scalar environment. More specifically, twenty-nine sites within a small region of coastal north-east Ireland have been examined. At site level the economic and commercial actions of tower house occupants, both individually and collectively, have been identified. The relationship between tower house site and settlement has likewise been explored, with a special emphasis on the commercial networks connecting them. On a larger scale, use of a regional case study has allowed for the productive comparison of this geographic area with other regions of Ireland and Britain, as well as colonial USA at a later date. By investigating the commercial aspects of the tower house, I have been able to identify national and long-distance communication and trade routes, which illustrates how the region can be relevant to the wider world. This paper will therefore demonstrate how a region can be used as a methodological tool to examine the issues of scale surrounding the Irish tower house. Specific tower house sites and their associated settlements will be discussed in the paper to illustrate the approach used in the research. Finally, although the archaeological evidence will receive the most attention, the paper will consider the benefits of an interdisciplinary methodology when considering late medieval landscapes and networks. "

Location: The Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting, Knoxville, TN

Event Date: Apr 2013

The proposed paper will focus on the tower house as a central aspect of medieval rural settlement. My research has examined the relationship between the tower house castles of north-east Ireland and the maritime eco... more abstractThe proposed paper will focus on the tower house as a central aspect of medieval rural settlement. My research has examined the relationship between the tower house castles of north-east Ireland and the maritime economy between the 14th and 17th centuries. As such, the tower house was not viewed in isolation, rather it was placed in its landscape and settlement context. This paper emerges from the marine-focused doctoral research to discuss the tower house's position within rural nucleated settlement (villages, hamlets and clachans). In the case study employed in this research a small cluster of tower house sites were found that were located away from navigable waterways, closer by land to the county market town. It was proposed that this group were therefore predominantly manorial in function. The paper will examine this cluster of tower houses, alongside the evidence for agricultural activity in the vicinity. While the majority of evidence will come from the County Down study area, it will be discussed in light of other academic research into tower house distributions elsewhere in Ireland. Arguably, the majority of tower houses are located by the sea or a navigable river, supporting the dissertation's premise that the monument form had an intrinsic maritime economic function. However, many others are, like those examples noted above, located away from navigable water and the hypothesis examined in this dissertation is that they were part of the manorial economy. It also poses the question: is this distribution pattern more pronounced in the Pale, the part of eastern Ireland under Anglo-Irish influence where it was traditionally held that arable agriculture was practised? And is it also witnessed in Gaelic Ireland, the native-held territory often maintained as relying on pastoral agriculture with a limited manorial structure? Finally, the relevance of this to the development of the dissertation into a book will be summarized. This book will compare several geographic densities of maritime fortifications from the later middle ages and the early modern period, not just the tower houses of Ireland.

Location: New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Sarasota, FL

Event Date: Mar 2014

This paper will examine global trends in the economic functions of late medieval and early modern fortifications, paying particular attention to the tower house castle. Tower houses are known from frontiers across Eur... more abstractThis paper will examine global trends in the economic functions of late medieval and early modern fortifications, paying particular attention to the tower house castle. Tower houses are known from frontiers across Europe, with recently completed research identifying a strong economic function amongst those examples located in the north of Ireland. Future research on the topic will expand and develop this investigation: comparisons will be drawn between Ireland and new case studies outside western Europe and will include other forms of late medieval and early modern residential fortification. Frankish controlled Greece and the Gold Coast of Africa are proposed for this comparative assessment. The paper will focus in particular on the extent the maritime fortifications relied upon waterborne communication and trade networks by examining their siting and function. The research will also analyze how these networks facilitated the fortifications’ relationship with the surrounding landscape (both maritime and terrestrial) and settlement. All three regions underwent significant colonization at different times, from the high middle ages into the seventeenth century. Therefore special attention will be paid to the adaptation of the late medieval fortifications to the emerging economic manifestations of early modern period colonization, comparing the early modern use of fortifications with that of the later middle ages. Although the paper will extensively reference global trends in the economic uses of later medieval fortification, it will primarily consider the tower houses of Ireland. As the subject of a recently completed doctoral investigation, Ireland provides the hypotheses and methodology for the further comparative study. By concentrating on the economic function of historic fortifications the research will identify their role in expanding an Atlantic World economy, contrasting it with the Mediterranean economy.

Location: 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo MI

Event Date: May 2014

Publisher: Four Courts Press, Dublin