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Castle Carra is a mesolithic occupation site, tower-house and killeen located in Moyle, Northern Ireland. The site rests on bedrock of the Southern Highland Group, formed during the Middle Cambrian period and composed of psammite and pelite deposits. This geological foundation has supported human activity across millennia, from the earliest post-glacial settlement through to later medieval structures.
The mesolithic occupation represents some of the earliest known activity at the site, when hunter-gatherer communities exploited the local landscape. Subsequently, a tower-house was constructed, reflecting the medieval period's need for fortified domestic residences amongst the Anglo-Norman and native Irish populations. The killeen, a small burial ground often associated with an early ecclesiastical site or hermitage, indicates the site's continuing significance through the Christian period.
Castle Carra is protected by the Historic Environment Division under reference 1254, recognising its archaeological importance across multiple periods of settlement and occupation. The layering of activity across such an extended timespan makes this location a valuable record of human use of the Moyle landscape from the post-glacial era to the medieval period.
Castle carra. mesolithic occupation site, tower-house & killeen is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 1254. View the official record →
Castle Carra is a mesolithic occupation site, tower-house and killeen located in Moyle, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 1254.
Castle carra. mesolithic occupation site, tower-house & killeen dates from the mesolithic period, and is classified as a fortification. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Castle carra. mesolithic occupation site, tower-house & killeen 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 1254.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Rath (4 km), Old castle. house (4.2 km), Barrow (4.6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Castle carra. mesolithic occupation site, tower-house & killeen'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.
Castle carra. mesolithic occupation site, tower-house & killeen stands on Southern Highland Group, bedrock that formed in the Middle Cambrian. The rock here is psammite and pelite.