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Black Pig's Dyke is a linear earthwork of Iron Age date located in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The monument consists of a substantial bank and ditch that runs across the landscape, characteristic of the defensive or demarcatory dykes constructed during the later prehistoric period. Such linear works typically served to control movement of people and livestock, establish territorial boundaries, or protect against incursion across significant distances.
The dyke is constructed upon bedrock of the Tyrone Group, a Visean limestone and mudstone sequence interspersed with sandstone, siltstone and chert. This underlying geology has shaped both the construction methods and the preservation of the earthwork, with the relatively soft substrata allowing for the substantial excavation required to create the ditch component. The local stone resources would have been available to builders, though the earthwork's form suggests prioritisation of labour-intensive earth-moving rather than stone construction.
Black Pig's Dyke is protected as a scheduled monument by the Historic Environment Division under reference 11314, recognising its significance as a surviving example of Iron Age land division and control infrastructure. The monument survives as a physical reminder of how prehistoric communities organised and defended their landscape in the Fermanagh region, contributing to understanding of settlement patterns and territorial arrangements in later Iron Age Ulster.
Black pig's dyke. linear earthwork is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 11314. View the official record →
Black Pig's Dyke is a linear earthwork of Iron Age date located in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 11314.
Black pig's dyke. linear earthwork dates from the iron age period, and is classified as a earthwork. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Black pig's dyke. linear earthwork is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 11314.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Large hilltop enclosure (1 km), The black pig's dyke. linear earthwork (1.1 km), Fundamental bench mark (4.6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Black pig's dyke. linear earthwork's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Black pig's dyke. linear earthwork stands on Tyrone Group, bedrock that formed in the Visean. The rock here is limestone, mudstone, sandstone and siltstone, with subordinate chert, coal and conglomerate.