The Burren Landscape Through Time Research Cluster

Exploring the archaeology of the Burren from prehistoric to post-Medieval times

The Burren is a striking karstic landscape on the south side of Galway Bay. From a landscape perspective, the Burren is remarkable for the quantity, preservation, and variety of archaeological sites and features from all periods that it contains. NUI Galway is fortunate to have this unique resource at its doorstep and both staff and students in the Department are engaged in studies focusing on various aspects of the archaeological landscapes of the Burren.

The Burren Landscape Through Time research cluster was first established with INSTAR (Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research) funding in Spring 2008 and has now continued beyond the initial period of INSTAR funding as a core research cluster of the NUI Galway Archaeology Department. This research cluster has brought together a number of archaeologists and researchers currently working on the Burren, including academics, a state archaeologist, consultant archaeologists and postgraduate students.

At present, this research cluster encompasses five lead studies and seven supplementary studies all united by their focus on the landscape of the Burren. The various projects are at different stages of development and have their own individual research questions but there is much common ground concerning the nature of the problems being investigated, the nature of the data being collected, and of course the base of previous research on the Burren. We hope that prospective post-graduate students interested in a landscape study will avail of the combination of the Department’s multi-period expertise on the archaeology of the Burren and the proximity of the Burren to the Galway campus. 

Staff Research

Dr Carleton Jones ( Profile)

Dr Elizabeth FitzPatrick ( Profile)

Dr Stefan Bergh ( Profile)

Dr Michelle Comber ( Profile)

Current Projects

• Turlough Hill, Co. Clare: A Prehistoric Meeting Place (Stefan Bergh)
  • Hill top cairns and associated features in the Burren (Frank Coyne)
• The Roughan Hill Prehistoric Landscape Project (Carleton Jones)
• The Role of Research in Issues of Management and Conservation: A Case Study of the Prehistoric Landscape of the North Central Burren (Christine Grant)
• The Archaeology of a Burren Ringfort Landscape (Michelle Comber)
  • Excavations in Caherconnell townland (Michelle Comber)
• Settlement and Traditional Society in late medieval and early modern Burren (Elizabeth FitzPatrick)
• Understanding Local and Regional Routeways and Movement in late medieval and early modern Burren, Co. Clare (Richard Clutterbuck)

Current Graduate Projects

PhD

• Danny Burke: The prehistoric megalith building society of the Burren: ethnographic insights from the Khasi people of Meghalaya
• Eve Campbell: Gaelic settlement after Cromwell: the study of a local transplantation site at Lislarheen in the Caher Valley (This Burren project is a case study for my PhD thesis)

M.Litt

• Oliver Carey : Coolnatullagh - A Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Secular and Ritual Landscape in the Eastern Burren
• Clare Hennigar: The Late Bronze Age settlement landscape of the Burren

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