LISBELLAW

Daniel Kirkpatrick

LISBELLAW Heritage Profile

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By

Daniel Kirkpatrick

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By | Compiled 2026-05-05 | N08000626
200 historic sites 20 scheduled monuments 26 listed buildings 8 archaeological periods

LISBELLAW covers 153.4 km² in Northern Ireland. With 200 historic sites and 20 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 96th percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 26 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 57th percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 80.7 recorded sites — the 97th percentile across NI wards (a measure of heritage density relative to current population). Dated archaeological evidence runs from the Mesolithic through to the Modern period, spanning 8 archaeological periods, placing the ward in the 90th percentile NI-wide for chronological depth.

Detailed boundary map of LISBELLAW ward, Fermanagh and Omagh
LISBELLAW boundary detail
Regional context map showing LISBELLAW ward within Fermanagh and Omagh
LISBELLAW in regional context

Heritage at a glance

Percentile rankings throughout this profile compare each ward only against the other 461 Northern Ireland wards.

200
Historic sites
97th percentile
20
Scheduled monuments
96th percentile
26
Listed buildings
57th percentile
1.60
Sites per km²

Population context

20
Persons per km²
19th percentile
80.7
Sites per 1,000 residents
97th percentile
3,049
Total residents (2021)

The recorded heritage of LISBELLAW

Of the 200 historic sites recorded, the most common are Burnt Mound (78, 39% of historic sites), Rath (19), and Tree Ring (10). For Burnt Mounds, this is the 94th percentile across NI wards that record this type. For Raths, this is the 85th percentile across NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 153.4 km², this gives a recorded density of 1.60 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments are distributed across approximately 0.08° of latitude and 0.10° of longitude within the ward, indicating dispersed rather than clustered placement.

Most common monument types

TypeCountDescription
Burnt Mound 78 —
Rath 19 —
Tree Ring 10 —

Chronological distribution

Mesolithic
46
Early Bronze Age
2
Middle Late Bronze Age
65
Iron Age
7
Early Medieval
56
Medieval
1
Post Medieval
5
Modern
13
Unknown
5

Terrain and environment

Mean elevation of 86m sits around the NI median (66th percentile), with a maximum of 215m giving the ward meaningful vertical relief. The terrain is consistently steep, with a mean slope of 5.4° (80th percentile across NI). The Topographic Wetness Index of 9.9 (22th NI percentile) indicates moderate drainage, balanced between upland shedding and lowland accumulation. The land cover is dominated by improved grassland (80%) and woodland (13%). In overall character, this is steeply-sloping terrain at modest elevation, with land use dominated by improved grassland.

Terrain measurements

Mean elevation86.5 m 66th pct
Max elevation214.6 m 76th pct
Mean slope5.4° 80th pct
Wetness index (TWI)9.91 22nd pct
Grassland80.4% 82nd pct
Woodland13.2% 35th pct
Urban land1.3% 12th pct

Where this ward sits in NI

Elevation
66th
Slope
80th
Drainage
22nd
Grassland
82nd
Woodland
35th

Geology and preservation

The dominant bedrock formed during the Palaeozoic era (Carboniferous period). Ancient sedimentary or metamorphic rock dating to before the age of dinosaurs; the resulting landscape has been long-stable enough to host every period of human activity. Bedrock composition is varied (complexity index 0.78, on a 0-1 Simpson-style scale), with multiple geological units within the ward boundary. Geologically diverse wards historically offered a wider range of stone types for building, toolmaking, and quarrying — a relevant factor when interpreting the material culture of nearby sites.

Bedrock eraPalaeozoic
Bedrock periodCarboniferous
Peat coverage0.0%
Bedrock complexity0.78

Placename evidence

The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 82 placenames for this ward. Diagnostic heritage strata identified within these are: 5 pre-Christian defensive (rath-, dún-, lios-, caiseal-), 15 ecclesiastical (cill-, teampall-, mainistir-, díseart-), and 1 Anglo-Norman (12th-14th c medieval planted names). Note: Irish-language (name_ga) forms are recorded for roughly half of NI placenames in the combined sources, so anglicised forms whose Irish original could belong to multiple categories may be misclassified.

Placename categories

Ecclesiastical (kil-, temple-, monaster-)15 names
Pre-Christian Defensive (rath-, dun-, lis-)5 names
Anglo-Norman1 name

Scheduled monuments in LISBELLAW

Scheduled monuments are sites legally protected under the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, designated by the Historic Environment Division (HED).

MonumentTypePeriod
Derrybrusk churchDerrybrusk ChurchUnknown
Court tomb: Druid's CircleCourt Tomb: Druid'S CircleNeolithic
Wedge Tomb: Druid's Alter and Giants GraveWedge Tomb: Druid'S Alter And Giants GraveNeolithic
Standing StoneStanding StoneEarly Bronze Age
Prehistoric ritual landscapePrehistoric Ritual LandscapeUnknown
Possible megalithic tombPossible Megalithic TombNeolithic
Church and graveyard, cross-shaft and baseChurch And Graveyard, Cross-Shaft And BaseUnknown
Platform RathPlatform RathEarly Medieval

Recorded historic sites

NamePeriodType
BAWN: THARLEGH BAWNPost-MedievalDefence
BURNT MOUNDMiddle-Late Bronze AgeAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDMiddle-Late Bronze AgeAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDMesolithicAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDMesolithicAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDMesolithicAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDMesolithicAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDMiddle-Late Bronze AgeAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDMesolithicAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDMesolithicAgriculture

Listed buildings in LISBELLAW

Address / NameGradePeriod
PARISH CHURCH MULLYBRITT LISBELLAW Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB—
43 MAIN ST. LISBELLAW Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB2—
THE WILD DUCK INN LISBELLAW Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB—
ST. MARY'S RC CHURCH MULLYBRITT LISBELLAW Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB—
INAN MULLYBRITT LISBELLAW Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB—
24 INNISHMORE ROAD LISBELLAW Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB—
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FAUGHARD LISBELLAW Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB—
OLD MANSE TATTYGARE Lisbellaw Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB1—
South Lodge (Heather House) 104 Belfast Road Derryvore Lisbellaw Co Fermanagh BT74 4HNB+1840 – 1859
HOLY TRINITY CHURCH GARVARY LISBELLAW Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB—

Further reading

Discover more in Fermanagh and Omagh

Grounding History report mockup

Want a deeper view?

Grounding History: 10 Maps of Northern Ireland’s Past

A spatial history report bringing together analysis of all 462 wards into one place through 10 high-quality maps — covering monument density, archaeological periods, placename heritage, terrain, wetland, and the historic landscape at first survey.

View the report — £12.99

About this profile

What is a ward?

A ward is the smallest electoral and statistical geography used by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). The boundaries used here are the 2014 NISRA / OSNI Wards (462 across Northern Ireland), each typically covering 1-700 km² and a population of a few thousand. Wards do not align with parishes, townlands, or any historic administrative unit — they are a modern statistical convenience, used here only as a fixed spatial frame within which to summarise heritage records.

What counts as a site?

Three distinct heritage record types are reported separately, not combined: (1) Historic Sites — entries in the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record (NISMR), the inventory of recorded archaeological sites and findspots, dated from prehistoric to early-modern; (2) Scheduled Monuments — sites legally protected under the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (NI) Order 1995 and maintained by the Historic Environment Division (HED); (3) Listed Buildings — buildings of architectural or historic interest protected under the Planning Act (NI) 2011 and graded A, B+, B1, B2, or Record-Only by HED. A site appearing in more than one register is counted in each register independently.

Editorial principles

These ward profiles describe evidence, not history. They report what is recorded, not what occurred. Where the data is ambiguous, we say so. We do not infer historical processes — population movements, settlement expansion, periods of decline — from patterns in the record. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: in Northern Ireland, where antiquarian survey was uneven and modern excavation is geographically biased, a gap in the record almost always reflects the limits of recording rather than a genuine historical absence. We mark such gaps explicitly where they appear in the data.

Limits of coverage and known caveats

Several caveats apply to every ward profile: (1) NISMR coverage is uneven across NI — some areas (notably parts of the south-east and the Belfast urban fringe) have been more intensively surveyed than others, so a low recorded site count does not reliably indicate a low past density of activity; (2) period attributions in NISMR are often 'Unknown', and chronological breakdowns reported here reflect only the dated subset; (3) placename classification depends on the Irish-language form (name_ga), which is recorded for approximately 50% of NI placenames in the combined sources, so ecclesiastical and pre-Christian counts may be understated where anglicised forms remain unparsed; (4) terrain percentile ranks compare each ward only to the other 461 NI wards; they are not absolute thresholds. For absence-dominant land cover categories (wetland, water, cropland), percentile ranks are suppressed below 1% raw value, since the ranking of zero-value wards is not meaningful.

Data sources (11)
Spotted an error? This dataset is updated continuously. Email contact@danielkirkpatrick.co.uk with corrections, missing records, or suggestions for improvement.