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Note:- In Ireland a 'Ditch' is an earth bank
The South West of Ireland has a landscape of beautiful coastal features, lakes and mountains. Where the land is farmed
the predominate boundary between fields is 'The Ditch'. The other major boundary is the drystone wall which is more common
in the uplands and rocky places. However many drystone walls are partially composed of 'till' or clay as it is known in England
and many Ditches are also composed of stone. Ditches as boundaries are not unique to Ireland and if you travel to the south
west of the UK and south Wales you will find similar earth/stone boundaries.
The Irish landscape is dominated by fields and field boundaries unlike the open landscape of much of continental Europe.
Agricultural land comprises eighty percent of the country. A hundred years ago or more, much more land was under cultivation
and you can often see boundaries on land which is now no longer suitable for cultivation or grazing. The vast majority of
these old fields were last used up to the famine of the 1840's. In many of these old fields it is still possible to see the
parallel rows of 'lazy beds' which were the cultivation rows for potatoes.
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| Entrance to Cahir Daniel, Co, Kerry built over 2000 years ago. |
ANCIENT STONEWORK & BOUNDARIES
Our boundaries mostly date from the Enclosure Acts of the 1700's but there is plenty of evidence of field boundaries much
older than that. Unique to Ireland are buried walls which have been exposed by peat cutting and shown to be bronze age,
approximately 4000 years old (Ceide fields, Co. Mayo). However these no longer function as boundaries. The oldest boundaries
are likely to be original field clearance ditches or walls, constructed out of stone from the fields whilst being cleared
and townland or parish boundaries. Both are of many centuries old. Clearance walls are nearly always very wide and enclose
small fields with irregular boundaries.
However, good, long lasting stonework is nothing new. The picture above shows the entrance to Cahir Daniel in Co.Kerry.
Archaeological evidence dates this as around 500 years BC. These 'forts', of which there are several in the southwest have
massively thick walls over 9 feet wide, often with small rooms inside. Although many have been partially rebuilt this entrance
is original.
TYPES OF BOUNDARIES
There are two types described here. The earth/soil/stone ditch and the drystone wall - sometimes also called a ditch!
THE DITCH
Earth based banks or ditches are the commonest boundary in most areas of Ireland and certainly the commonest in the South
West. These ditches are quite variable in their construction and size. Some are totally made from till or clay, Others have
one side being stone and with the other being mainly till/clay with a drainage ditch on that side from which the soil was
dug from. Others may have both sides of stone and filled with soil and have a drainage ditch on both sides.. The stonework
in these ditches can vary from being placed horizontally or vertically or both. Often smaller ditches are composed of a random
collection of stones. They often appear much larger than they actually are because of dense growths of vegetation to the
sides and top. This may include shrubs such as Hawthorn or even trees. They are generally between three and six feet in
height and a similar width.
STONE WALLS
Irish stone walls vary considerably, even in the same geographical area. Walls here are generally much lower in height
than walls in the UK and can be as low as two or three feet. Walls of five or six feet in height are quite uncommon. The
width varies from two feet to three feet or more in the case of clearance walls. Unlike most walls in the UK the sides are
almost always vertical in cross section and do not have a sloped side or 'batter' like UK walls.
Unique to the south west of Ireland, many walls have their stones placed vertically in the wall as opposed to horizontally
as is common in other countries.
Cope stones which are placed on the top of walls to lock the wall and prevent damage from animals are either composed
of large slabs covering the full width of the wall or large upright stones. They are almost never placed on a slant and are
rarely used on vertically aligned walls.
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