NAVAN — Ward Boundary Map

Daniel Kirkpatrick

NAVAN Heritage Profile

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By

Daniel Kirkpatrick

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By | Compiled 2026-05-05 | N08000231
157 historic sites 22 scheduled monuments 51 listed buildings 7 archaeological periods

NAVAN covers 293.6 km² in Northern Ireland. With 157 historic sites and 22 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 95th percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 51 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 79th percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 43.4 recorded sites — the 87th 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 7 archaeological periods, placing the ward in the 79th percentile NI-wide for chronological depth.

Detailed boundary map of NAVAN ward, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon
NAVAN boundary detail
Regional context map showing NAVAN ward within Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon
NAVAN in regional context

Heritage at a glance

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

157
Historic sites
96th percentile
22
Scheduled monuments
97th percentile
51
Listed buildings
79th percentile
0.78
Sites per km²

Population context

18
Persons per km²
18th percentile
43.4
Sites per 1,000 residents
87th percentile
5,296
Total residents (2021)

The recorded heritage of NAVAN

Of the 157 historic sites recorded, the most common are Rath (19, 12% of historic sites), Enclosure (16), and Ap Site- Possible Enclosure (16). For Raths, this is the 85th percentile across NI wards that record this type. For Enclosures, this is the 85th percentile across NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 293.6 km², this gives a recorded density of 0.78 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments are distributed across approximately 0.06° of latitude and 0.20° of longitude within the ward, indicating dispersed rather than clustered placement.

Most common monument types

TypeCountDescription
Rath 19 —
Enclosure 16 —
Ap Site- Possible Enclosure 16 —

Chronological distribution

Mesolithic
12
Early Bronze Age
3
Iron Age
67
Early Medieval
49
Medieval
1
Post Medieval
7
Modern
7
Unknown
11

Terrain and environment

Mean elevation of 71m sits around the NI median (58th percentile), reaching 144m at the highest point. Mean slope is 5.1° (71th percentile across NI), giving moderately undulating terrain. The Topographic Wetness Index of 10.0 (27th NI percentile) indicates moderate drainage, balanced between upland shedding and lowland accumulation. The land cover is dominated by improved grassland (85%) and woodland (10%).

Terrain measurements

Mean elevation70.9 m 58th pct
Max elevation144.2 m 60th pct
Mean slope5.1° 72nd pct
Wetness index (TWI)10.00 27th pct
Grassland84.8% 91st pct
Woodland10.4% 21st pct
Cropland3.2% 70th pct
Urban land1.4% 13th pct

Where this ward sits in NI

Elevation
58th
Slope
72nd
Drainage
27th
Grassland
91st
Woodland
21st

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
Surface depositsTill
Peat coverage0.0%
Bedrock complexity0.78

Placename evidence

The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 121 placenames for this ward. Diagnostic heritage strata identified within these are: 11 pre-Christian defensive (rath-, dún-, lios-, caiseal-), 10 ecclesiastical (cill-, teampall-, mainistir-, díseart-), 2 Norse coastal (fjord-derived names, Viking-age trading sites), and 2 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-)10 names
Pre-Christian Defensive (rath-, dun-, lis-)11 names
Norse Coastal2 names
Anglo-Norman2 names

Scheduled monuments in NAVAN

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
Large EnclosureLarge EnclosureIron Age
RathRathEarly Medieval
RathRathEarly Medieval
RathRathEarly Medieval
RathRathEarly Medieval
EnclosureEnclosureIron Age
Multivaallate RathMultivaallate RathEarly Medieval
Rath: LisglynnRath: LisglynnEarly Medieval

Recorded historic sites

NamePeriodType
A.P. SITE – 2 circular enclosuresUnknownUnknown
A.P. SITE – POSSIBLE ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – POSSIBLE ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – POSSIBLE ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – POSSIBLE ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – POSSIBLE ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – POSSIBLE ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – POSSIBLE ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – POSSIBLE ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
A.P. SITE – POSSIBLE ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown

Listed buildings in NAVAN

Address / NameGradePeriod
The Former Market and Courthouse 12 Main Street Middletown Co ArmaghB21820 – 1839
Gate Lodge at Port Nelligan 236 Monaghan Road Middletown Co. Armagh BT60 4HQB21860 – 1879
IRON BRIDGE TYNAN CALEDON CO.TYRONEB—
LECTURE HALL TO TEMPLE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH KEADY CO.ARMAGHB1—
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (THE TEMPLE) KEADY CO.ARMAGHB+—
TYNAN ABBEY ARMAGH CO.ARMAGHA—
BALLINDARRANG LODGE TYNAN ABBEY CORFEHAN CO.ARMAGHB+—
PORTNELLIGAN HOUSE PORTNELLIGAN KILLYLEA CO.ARMAGHB—
AQUEDUCT ON ULSTER CANAL GORTMALEGG/LEMMAGORE TYNAN CO.ARMAGHB—
FELLOW'S HALL TYNAN KILLYLEA CO.ARMAGHB1—

Further reading

Discover more in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon

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.