Field boundary in Lissardowlan — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Lissardowlan castle still casts its shadow across a narrow field where ridge-and-furrow marks slope downward like water forgotten in clay. The boundary bank appears and vanishes along the east and south, not because it is gone but because the land has stopped performing for strangers. Whoever farmed that small patch after the castle fell made a living inside its reach, drawing food from soil the knights never touched. The field does not need a date to be real; it keeps its own time in the tilt of its ridges.

At the motte and bailey castle at Lissardowlan (LF014-071001-). Bradley et al. (1985, 32) recorded a narrow raised area running from the S of the motte to the modern road c. 110m S. This is not marked on any ed. of the OS 6-inch map but its outline (Wth 2.3, H 0.1m) is still identifiable, albeit intermittently, in the field as a low linear feature. Although Bradley et al. (ibid.) postulated that this may have been part of an old roadway. However, O'Conor and De Meulemeester (2007, 90) believed it to be the remains of a plough head, associated with ridge-and-furrow cultivation and dating to the post-medieval period. This feature appears to be part of the enclosing element of a small field to the SW of the motte and bailey containing ridge and furrow ridges. The ridges can be seen extending down the slope from NE to SW and are contained within a small field, the boundary bank of which can be seen on the E and S sides. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 26 August 2011

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