What is recorded here

Shankill kept a gated fortification during the mid-thirteenth century, though its exact walls have vanished from the earth. A murder recorded inside that gate between 1257 and 1263 confirms the settlement was enclosed enough to trap violence within its own boundary. The missing stones do not weaken the fact; they reveal how quickly human urgency can build a place and how quickly memory can erase it.

The Calendar of Archbishop Alen's Register records that between 1257 and 1263 a murder was committed in the gate of Shankill (McNeill 1950, 112). This would suggest that the settlement was enclosed but no trace of the course of the defences survives. The fortification has not been precisely located. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout and Padraig Clancy. Revised upload on: 19 April 2018.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.