Between the fifth century and the ninth, several thousand churches were founded in Ireland, a greater density than most other regions of Europe. This period saw fundamental changes in settlement patterns, agriculture, social organisation, rituals and beliefs, and churches are an important part of that story. The premise of this book is that landscape archaeology is one of the most fruitful ways to study them. By looking at where they were placed in relation to pagan ritual and royal sites, burial grounds, and settlements, and how they fared over the centuries, we can map the shifting strategies of kings, clerics and ordinary people. The result is a fascinating new perspective on this formative period, with wider implications for the study of social power and religious change elsewhere in Europe. The earliest churches, founded at a time of religious diversity (400-550), were often within royal landscapes, showing that some sections of the elite chose to make space for the new religion. These often lost out to new monasteries positioned at a remove from core royal land, making it possible to grant them the great estates on which their wealth was based (550-800). Now, however, founding churches was no longer a prerogative of kings for we see numerous lesser churches outside these estates. In this way middle-ranking people helped transform the landscape and shape religious cultures in which rituals and beliefs of local origin co-existed alongside Christianity. Finally, in the Viking Age (800-1100), some lesser churches were abandoned while community churches began to exert more of a gravitational pull, foreshadowing the later medieval parish system.
Tomás Ó Carragáin of the Archaeology Department, University College Cork, specialises in the archaeology of early medieval Ireland and its European context (AD 400-1200). His publications include Inishmurray: Monks and Pilgrims in an Atlantic Landscape (The Collins Press, 2008, co-authored with Jerry O’Sullivan), Churches in Early Medieval Ireland: Architecture, Ritual and Memory (Yale University Press, 2010), Making Christian Landscapes in Atlantic Europe (Cork University Press, 2016, co-edited with Sam Turner) and Climate and Society in Ireland from Prehistory to the Present (Royal Irish Academy, 2021, co-edited with James Kelly).
a truly magisterial work, which exhibits Ó Carragáin’s unique ability to imagine the lived experience of early medieval communities and model in detail how they articulated their beliefs in the material world
~Duncan Wright, University of Newcastle, Landscapes, 23.1, 97–98
Tomás Ó Carragáin has made another massive contribution to early medieval archaeology in the form and content of Churches in the Irish Landscape AD 400-1100
~Archaeology Ireland 35.4, 55
This [...] monograph builds on Ó Carragáin’s previous work but offers something entirely new, and incredibly important […] The monastic paradigm now lies in ruins, but Ó Carragáin has made an enormous contribution to building a new edifice: an image of the early medieval Irish Church that is complex, nuanced, and which involved all strata of society and permeated every corner of the island of Ireland. The implications of his work are manifold, and he has given those of us who work predominantly with textual sources much to consider and rethink. Churches in the Irish Landscape is an absolutely beautiful book—substantial, heavyweight (both literally and figuratively), and lavishly illustrated with color photographs, maps, and drawings. Given the cost of many academic monographs that have far lower production values, the book is also very reasonably priced. This book will be a wonderful addition to every institutional and personal library, and I will certainly be consulting it very frequently in the years to come
~Elizabeth Boyle, Maynooth University, Church History 92.1
Tomás Ó Carragáin is spearheading a generational leap forward in the archaeology of early medieval Christianity. […] this complex and rich volume […] will reward repeated visits
~Adrian Maldonado, National Museums Scotland, Antiquity, 96 (388), 1038–1040
This book is a game-changer. It is meticulously researched and brilliantly written ....
~Michael Potterton, Maynooth University, Landscape History 44:1
wonderful [...] a monumental, 424-page tour-de-force. [...] Perhaps what will make the most immediate impact on those picking up this book – and everyone should – is the characteristically excellent job Cork University Press and Tomás Ó Carragáin have done in producing a text supplemented by beautifully drawn colour maps, plans and full-page as well as inset photographs: reading it is like taking multiple pilgrimages.
~Thomas Pickles, University of Chester, Medieval Settlement Research 38, 69-70.
a truly magisterial work, which exhibits Ó Carragáin’s unique ability to imagine the lived experience of early medieval communities and model in detail how they articulated their beliefs in the material world
~Duncan Wright, University of Newcastle, Landscapes, 23.1, 97–98
a truly magisterial work, which exhibits Ó Carragáin’s unique ability to imagine the lived experience of early medieval communities and model in detail how they articulated their beliefs in the material world.
~Duncan Wright, University of Newcastle, Landscapes, 23.1, 97–98
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a truly magisterial work, which exhibits Ó Carragáin’s unique ability to imagine the lived experience of early medieval communities and model in detail how they articulated their beliefs in the material world
~Duncan Wright, University of Newcastle, Landscapes, 23.1, 97–98
