What is recorded here

Bawn in Shortstone East was a sub-rectangular stone enclosure with corner towers on a limestone ridge in County Louth when land clearance operations substantially damaged it around 2000. Its collapsed walls once rose nearly two metres, guarding a gap in the west wall that may have served as the entrance. The loss reveals how quickly human ingenuity can be erased, leaving behind only scattered stones and the memory of a boundary drawn across open ground.

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007 The monument was substantially damaged in land clearance operations c. 2000. Situated on the top of an E-W limestone ridge, it was sub-rectangular in shape (c. 58m E-W, c. 40m N-S) and enclosed by the remains of a collapsed stone wall (ext. H c. 1.9m, int. H c. 0.5m, Wth c. 1.5m). The wall had collapsed on all sides and the only remaining inner facing was at the N side, with a further portion at the W. At the NW, NE and SE angles there were the remains of circular towers. There was a gap in the N end of the W wall c. 1.5m wide and this may have represented the original entrance. Adjoining the enclosure at the E wall close to the NE angle there was the remains of a semi-circular enclosure (c. 6m across) partly obscured by a modern field wall.

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