Settlement

• Mesilithic: survived by hunting animals and gathering nuts and berries


  Arrived in 7,000 BC by land bridges connecting Ireland and Britain or dug-out canoes
• Neolithic: Arrived 5000 bc. First to farm the land, brought pigs, cattle, sheep and wheat. Used rivers for transport and lived at riverbanks


  We know where they live by looking for their tombs. They built four types of tombs: Court cairns passage graves portal dolmers and wedge tombs
• Bronze Age: Arrived 2000 bc. Built stone circles: worship sites and fulacht fiadh: stone lined pits filled with water, where food was cooked
• Celtic Iron age: Arrived 500 BC. The Celts came from central Europe and settled here. They built forts (farmsteads) often called dun, lios, rath or cashel. Eg. Tara hill, Co. Meath or Emain Macha, Co.
• Vikings: arrived 800 ce from Scandinavia.

  Raided monasteries. Built ports with 2 main streets, a market place and a wall for defence. Eg. Wexford, Waterford or Carlingford
• Anglo-Norman: arrived 1169 ce. Settled in leinster because of the fertile brown soil. Built castles at bridging pointe in River bends for protection and basic needs. Markets in Castle. As market became successful, settlers moved in and a town grew around the castle.
• Early Christian: arrived 500 CE after St. Patrick in 432 CE. Monks built churches, round towers, infirmary and scriptoriums (protected by a circular wall) in peaceful, low-lying areas with fertile brown soil. Eg. Glendalough, Co. Wicklow or Clonmacnoice, Co. Offaly.


  Grew their own food. Built ringforts/raths: Circular enclosures protected by a ditch/wooden fence. Houses were made of wattle and daub
• Plantation settlement: from the 1560s. The first plantations in Ireland by English settlers failed. Plantation towns were built as market centers and to provide protection for settlers. They had straight streets. Eg. Derry
• Landlord towns from 1703: by the 1700s, the decendants of settlers had built up large estates called landlord towns. Some landlord towns were built directly outside their walled properties. 


  These towns were often a single straight street with a market square in the middle. There was a church on the street that the landlord would attend on Sundays. Eg. Birr, Co. Offaly
• New towns-1900s: in the 1960s, Ireland's population increased for the first time since the famine. Government built new towns to provide housing. Eg. Ballymun, Tallaght, Lucan-Clondalkin, Blanchardstown and in 2000s Adamstown.
• Factors affecting the location of nucleated settlement:

  Altitude

  Land quality

  Drainage
• Altitude: altitude is the height above sea level. Mountains and Hills more than 200 meters above sea level=more exposed to wind, rain and colder temperatures + less accessible. 


  As a result, towns and cities found in lowland areas. They are easier to build on and usually well connected to transport links
• Land quality: most settlements developed on areas of well drained fertile land. Anglo-norman settlers settled on fertile brown soils.

  Local market drove growth of these settlements.

  During plantations of Ulster (1600s) Scottish and English settlers attracted to the fertile agricultural land of lagan Valley. Towns such as Belfast grew as market centers.
• Drainage: Irish settlements located on well-drained areas with rivers/streams. Rivers= water + transport. Alluvium on a rivers floodplain made fertile soil for farming. There for, many settlements are located a short distance from a rivers floodplane. 


  Many towns developed at the bridging point of a river sometimes also on dry-point sites: sites near a river but on a hill so rainwater drained into river. Poorly drained areas contain fewer settlements.
• Dispersed: Settlement where the houses are scattered
• Linear: The community is set up in a straight line
• Nucleated: a large community in a small area.
• Functions of nucleated settlement: services. Eg. Shops or housing. Provide a range of functions to the town: multifunctional.


  Residential: house.

  Retail/market: shop.

  Recreation/tourism: Hotel, campsite. Industrial/resource: factory, mine.

  Commercial: office. Ecclesiastical/religious: Church.

  Port: sea port, airport.

  Open space: park.

  Transport: Road, railways

  Services/adminstration: fire station

  Defence (historic): castle