© Mapbox · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundary data © DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR)
The open field system at Down is a medieval agricultural landscape preserved in Northern Ireland's rolling terrain. Located on bedrock of Hawick Group wacke dating to the Wenlock period, the site represents a distinctive form of communal land management that flourished across medieval Britain and Ireland. Such systems divided arable land into long, narrow strips worked by individual tenants, whose scattered holdings were redistributed periodically to ensure equitable access to soils of varying fertility.
The undulating topography of the Hawick wacke foundation at Down would have influenced drainage and workability, shaping how medieval farmers laid out their strips and organised their ploughing. The system reflects the social structure of medieval rural settlement, where open fields bound communities through shared labour obligations, common grazing rights on fallow land, and collective decision-making about cropping cycles. This arrangement persisted until enclosure, when fields were consolidated into individually owned, hedged parcels.
Protected by the Historic Environment Division under reference 8365, the open field system at Down survives as an earthwork landscape. Though many such systems across the island of Ireland were disrupted by later agricultural improvement and property reorganisation, visible ridge-and-furrow patterns and field boundaries at Down remain evidence of medieval communal farming practice and the long relationship between settlement, topography and land use in this part of Ulster.
Open field system is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 8365. View the official record →
The open field system at Down is a medieval agricultural landscape preserved in Northern Ireland's rolling terrain. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 8365.
Open field system dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a field system. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Open field system 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 8365.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Clachan (0.1 km), A.p. site - barrow? (1.7 km), Raised rath (1.8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Open field system'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.
Open field system stands on Hawick Group, bedrock that formed in the Wenlock. The rock here is wacke.