Glossary

Bawn: This is a defended courtyard of a castle, fortified house or abbey. It is usually used to describe the defended courtyard in a tower house. The defence is the outer surrounding wall of the castle, which is often punctuated by towers, called a bawn wall or curtain wall.

Bellcote: A framework in a roof often set on a gable or above and arch, from which a bell can be hung.

Bronze Age: (c.2500BC to c.600BC) It begins around 2500BC when metalworking was introduced to Ireland in the form of copper and gold objects and then a little later, c.2200BC, bronze - a copper and tin alloy - began to be made. The wedge tomb, being the latest type of megalith, belongs to a period of transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. Towards the end of the Bronze Age evidence shows very sophisticated use of Bronze metal working and the occurrence of more and more weapons, which seems to suggest a society with a developing warrior elite, a growing population and pressures on resources.

Buttress: A mass of masonry projecting from, or built against a wall to give it additional strength or support.

Cairn: A mound of stones, often very large, covering a prehistoric structure or burial site.

Capstone: This is a stone that covers a burial chamber of a cist or megalithic tomb and is sometimes called a roofstone.

Chamber: This is a burial compartment in a megalithic monument.
Chancel: The east end of a church where the main altar is placed, sometimes divided from the nave by a chancel arch and/or rood screen.

Chapter House: This is the meeting house for the canons of a cathedral or monks of a particular order.

Chert: It is a crystalline form of silica normally occurring in bands of sedimentary rock, such as limestone. It is usually dark in colour and when struck and worked it made shape tools of various types - knives, scrapers, javelin heads, arrowheads etc - but was not usually the same quality as flint.
Choir: The part of a cathedral, monastic or church with a chapter of canons but without a bishop, which has or had choir stalls for the chanting of daily offices and other services usually in the chancel at the east end of the church.
Cist: This is a term used to describe a stone lined burial chamber formed by upright slabs or boulders, sometimes paved with stone and covered by one or more capstones. They date from the Neolithic to the Iron Age but most date to the Bronze Age.

Cloisters: An enclosed space surrounded by a covered walkway, which usually has an open arcade on one side and a wall on another; part of a monastic establishment. Generally, but not always, located on the south side of the monastic church, connecting the church with the domestic parts of the establishment.

Corbel: A projecting block of wood or stone from a wall used to support floors, timber beams, etc. In megaliths corbels are slabs of stone used in roofing.

Court tombs: The most distinctive feature is usually a roofless U-shaped court area from which the main body, or gallery, of the monuments was reached. This gallery consists of two or more chambers set behind one another. The chambers had low corbelled roofs and would have been covered in a cairn, the edges of which were delimited by large kerbstones, occasional drystone walling or both. There are variations on this standard plan that include full, dual, transepted and central court tombs. Deerpark is an example of a central court-tomb.Curvilinear: A word used to describe the use of curved lines in decoration.