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The seventeenth-century bawn at this location in Derry is a fortified enclosure typical of early modern plantation-era defensive architecture in Ulster. Built on bedrock of the Southern Highland Group—Cambrian psammite and pelite formed some 500 million years ago—the bawn comprises a substantial stone-built perimeter wall designed to protect livestock and provide refuge during periods of civil unrest. Such structures were characteristic of the English and Scottish plantations in Ireland, where settlers required defensible compounds combining domestic, agricultural and martial functions within a single fortified circuit.
The bawn's construction reflects the strategic imperatives of seventeenth-century Ulster, when fortified farmsteads offered protection against raiding and resistance to plantation authority. The stone-built walls, typically standing several metres high, enclosed buildings and yards within a compact, defensible space. This example, protected as a scheduled monument by the Historic Environment Division, survives as a substantial physical record of the military infrastructure accompanying colonial settlement.
The monument's survival on this Cambrian bedrock foundation demonstrates the durability of early modern masonry construction. Such bawns remain among the most visible and archaeologically informative structures of the plantation period, their physical remains contributing significantly to understanding both the settlement patterns and the defensive preoccupations of seventeenth-century Ulster society.
C17th bawn is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 16472. View the official record →
The seventeenth-century bawn at this location in Derry is a fortified enclosure typical of early modern plantation-era defensive architecture in Ulster. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 16472.
C17th bawn 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 16472.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including C17th windmill - ihr 02409 (2.1 km), Rath (2.7 km), Linear, connected cellars (2.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of C17th bawn'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.
C17th bawn stands on Southern Highland Group, bedrock that formed in the Middle Cambrian. The rock here is psammite and pelite.