Kilmonaster: a landscape reconsidered
Why a group of townlands east of Raphoe, where much of the archaeology is damaged or gone, is the right place to begin.
By Beyond the Bend · 11 October 2026
Most people who drive between Raphoe and Lifford pass Kilmonaster without noticing it. The fields look like any others in the Finn valley. But the records describe monuments here — tombs, cairns, stones — and the gap between what was recorded and what survives is where this project starts.
A landscape, not a monument
A single tomb can be photographed and described. A landscape has to be reconstructed: which monuments existed, where they stood, what each could see, and how the whole was arranged in relation to the hills around it. Croaghan Hill dominates the eastern view; Beltany lies a few kilometres to the west.
RecordCroaghan Hill
RecordBeltany Stone Circle
Method
The work proceeds from the record outward: the national record and county survey first, then historical mapping, then field and aerial observation. Each observation is logged as a record with its own status. Interpretations are labelled as interpretations.