2017-2018 Faculty Research Grants
Rhonda Root, Robin Johnson, and Ariel Solis (Architecture)
Cuilcagh Mountain Regional Research Project, Ireland
Our faculty research team is recording and investigating successive generations of habitation sites and architectural remnants along the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in an effort to better understand how an agrarian population interacted with, and were influenced by, the geological landscape and associated natural habitats of Cuilcagh Mountain. The Marble Arch Caves Geopark, within the Cuilcagh Mountain Region, supports our long term on-site research and is pursuing funding for a comprehensive publication of our efforts. We will document sites using measurements, hand sketches, photography, drone videos, and the non-invasive photogrammetry techniques which we recently refined and applied to Irish archeology. We will follow-up our on-site work with the development of drafted and digital architectural drawings, watercolor, digital and traditional renderings, ultimately creating a documentary record of observable habitation sites in 3D digital image and 2D printed formats, including a digital landscape with overlays describing successive development. Analysis of the sites will be from multi-disciplinary perspectives. Historical range could include Irish vernacular architecture of the following periods: Prehistoric, Early Christian, Medieval, pre-famine, post-famine, 20th century to present. This year our work will focus around a site called Moneygashel Cashel. It includes three fine stone cashels (secure enclosures which accommodated both animal shelters and housing dating from the early Christian era) and a neighboring pre-famine farmstead. We will also document two nearby residential sites, Gortmaconnel and Legnabrocky, in the county of Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.