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Corbelled pig crew is a roofed animal shelter located near Down in County Down, Northern Ireland. The structure survives as a dry-stone construction with corbelled roof timbers, a building type typical of agricultural workers' provision across Ulster and western Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Such shelters housed pigs, cattle or poultry, providing protection from the region's wet climate whilst allowing animals access to nearby pasture and feeding grounds.
The monument sits upon bedrock of the Hawick Group, a Wenlock-age greywacke formation that characterises much of the local geology around Down. This hard, weathered stone would have been readily available for the building's dry-stone walls, reducing construction costs for a working farm structure. The corbelled roof technique, where flat stones project progressively inward to form an arched or domed interior, represented an economical roofing method requiring no timber beams or specialist carpentry.
As a surviving example of vernacular farm architecture, the corbelled pig crew illustrates the practical building traditions of rural Down. The monument is protected by the Historic Environment Division under reference number 16339, recognising its importance to the understanding of agricultural heritage and construction methods in nineteenth-century Ulster.
Corbelled pig crew is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 16339. View the official record →
Corbelled pig crew is a roofed animal shelter located near Down in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 16339.
Corbelled pig crew 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 16339.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Tower-house (0.5 km), Raised rath (1 km), Clachan (2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Corbelled pig crew'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.
Corbelled pig crew stands on Hawick Group, bedrock that formed in the Wenlock. The rock here is wacke.