Medieval Village - Blog Posts

Childhood - Bjorn

Reading the Leaves

My life before I became an orphan was that of a usual kid. I think. I played with the other kids in the village, helped mother in the garden now and then, watched the smith working when I had time. Nothing unusual.

Father was working in the mines. It was seldom that I could help him there. One time he called me and showed me this gemstone he found. He told me that I should show it to mother and ask if she likes it. I did just that. And she did like it.

It's been a very long time since that happened. Many things have changed since then. Many things...

Picture Medieval Village by rissking Music Reading the Leaves by Falling You

© The Zero 零 Squad, 2013-2016

Tonaroasty (Tóin an Róistigh, something along the lines of 'The bottom end of de Roche lands') is a medieval ghost village in Co. Galway I accidentally came across when out to shoot a stone circle on a barrow (I did take photos of it too). Judging from the onomastics (and from the satellite photos clearly showing rectangular foundations and what seems to be a cross-shaped church) it was an Anglo-Norman settlement, so built no later than 12th c. This also gives us a clue about how and why it ended. When the Black Death reached Ireland, the Gaels were in a more advantageous position than the Normans as they lived in less crowded conditions and did not have any religious prejudice about cats (hence, less rats and less fleas carrying plague). The Norman settlers were traditionally living in a more compact way, were in frequent contact with people from crowded castles, and the relationship between cats and folk Christianity soon turned to be rocky at best (to put it very mildly). Therefore, the plague was feasting on them at will, and it was one of the factors that contributed to the subsequent Gaelicisation of the surviving Anglo-Norman nobility. The plague hypothesis also explains quite neatly why the site has not been used for settlement again ever since.