Land tenure and farming in early medieval Kerry: a survey of field systems in the Lough Currane basin

Kerry, especially peninsular Kerry, has arguably the richest early-medieval settlement archaeology in Ireland. Because of the widespread tradition of drystone construction, buildings within its ringforts and early ecclesiastical sites have a much higher survival rate than elsewhere. Partly because of this, a relatively high number of sites have been excavated in the region as a result of which, relatively speaking, we have quite a good understanding of the chronology of its buildings and monuments. Ancient field walls also survive relatively well here, especially in the uplands, some of which were built or were still in use during the early-medieval period. Potentially they can tell us a great deal about land tenure, social organisation, farming practices and lifeways, allowing us to move beyond the study of individual sites to consider how whole landscapes were utilised and experienced by people in their daily lives. This paper presents the results of a survey of the field systems of the Lough Currane basin in the Iveragh peninsula and considers what conclusions we can draw from it.