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Linear earthwork - parallel ditches is a Bronze Age agricultural parallel site located near Armagh in Northern Ireland, situated at grid reference H840045000. The monument comprises two substantial ditches running in parallel, characteristic of field systems constructed during the Bronze Age for stock management and land division. These earthworks represent an important phase of prehistoric agricultural intensification, when communities began to organise the landscape more systematically for pastoral and arable use.
The site lies upon bedrock of the Armagh Group, composed of limestone, argillaceous rocks and subordinate sandstone laid down during the Visean period. This geology would have influenced both the construction of the ditches and the productivity of the surrounding land. The weathered limestone and clay-rich soils of the area remain conducive to pastoral farming, suggesting the landscape's suitability for livestock grazing has remained consistent since the Bronze Age.
The parallel ditches form part of the broader pattern of Bronze Age field organisation visible across Northern Ireland. Such systems typically divided grazing land, contained stock and may have served territorial or social functions within farming communities. The monument is protected by the Historic Environment Division under reference 5433, recognising its significance as a survival of Bronze Age settlement and economic practice in the Ulster landscape.
Linear earthwork - parallel ditches is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 5433. View the official record →
Linear earthwork - parallel ditches is a Bronze Age agricultural parallel site located near Armagh in Northern Ireland, situated at grid reference H840045000.
Linear earthwork - parallel ditches dates from the bronze age period, and is classified as a a.p. site. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Linear earthwork - parallel ditches 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 5433.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Rath (6.5 km), Lisglynn. rath & souterrain (6.5 km), The doonan. mound (6.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Linear earthwork - parallel ditches'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.
Linear earthwork - parallel ditches stands on Armagh Group, bedrock that formed in the Visean. The rock here is limestone, argillaceous rocks and subordinate sandstone, interbedded.