Settlement cluster in Rochestown

The record identifies Settlement cluster in Rochestown as Settlement cluster. It does not safely name every person, family or worker who used it, or fix all phases to exact years.

The recorded type points to a place used for homes, seasonal shelter, farming or shared daily work. That explains the likely everyday purpose without claiming people, tools or customs that the exact record does not prove.

The saved source says: On the summit of a ridge, overlooking a valley to the E. The River Suir flows c. 500m to the W, in undulating terrain. In the Civil Survey (1654-6), reference is made to 'the walles of a Castle and a little castle both burned, a slate house, and a bawne about them' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 348). Power (1908, 53) describes how 'the castle of Rochestown was stormed in 1647 by Inchiquin who put its fifty warders to the sword and burned "much corn and divers towns thereabouts'. The settlement consists of a tower house (TS082-055001-) and bawn (TS082-055002-), church (TS081-042001-) and graveyard (TS081-042) and earthworks. In the field S of the tower house there is a roughly curving natural ridge, the top of which appears to be defined by a very low, old field bank (G.S.I. May 1977 S. 688/9). There is flooding at the base of the ridge in a natural hollow. In the field E of Rochestown tower house the ground undulates gradually to the W in gently undulating terraces visible on an aerial photograph (Bord Gais 6677). It is possible that an old field boundary followed the line of the edge of the ridge. In 1981 an area c. 150m S of the tower house, was excavated in advance of the laying of the gas pipeline (MacLeod in Cleary et al. 1987.

The saved record does not establish one certain ending. A change in farming, water level, trade, fuel, ownership, route or settlement pattern may have ended the use, but no single cause is claimed without evidence.

Settlement cluster in Rochestown matters because material evidence was found or examined here, allowing the place to answer questions that its name alone cannot. The source records: This excavation revealed that the terracing was a result of man-made activity, most of the terraces showed evidence of ridge and furrow cultivation. The examination or finds give physical evidence for date, use or human activity rather than leaving the account as guesswork.