This module focused on a number of manors in Carlow-Kilkenny, an area where Anglo-Norman lords settled, established manorial economies and in some cases granted lands to English, Welsh and Flemish tenants. The manor of Forth was examined in detail, it came into the hands of the Bigod earls of Norfolk in the mid-thirteenth century, and the centre of the manor is thought to be located in the townland of Castlemore, County Carlow, 2.5km west of Tullow. A motte and bailey castle survives close to a small churchyard and this is likely to mark the centre of the settlement that was established the in the thirteenth century.
This site was selected because the land is still under arable cultivation and fieldwalking of the ploughed fields allowed the project to collect a large quantity of sherds of medieval pottery, the distribution of which may suggest a lost settlement. There are also extensive documentary records for the site, with a series of nine annual accounts that survive for the manor when it was managed by the lay lord, Roger Bigod in the 1280s.
You can learn more about this module in a short video to promote the site here and a recording of a webinar by Dr Niall Brady here. A publication on this module of the project is currently in preparation.
A video outlining research carried out at the deserted medieval settlement at Castlemore, County Carlow.
