ROSSLEA

Daniel Kirkpatrick

ROSSLEA Heritage Profile

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By

Daniel Kirkpatrick

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By | Compiled 2026-05-15 | N08000634
111 historic sites 4 scheduled monuments 74 listed buildings 7 archaeological periods

ROSSLEA covers 278.9 km² in Northern Ireland. With 111 historic sites and 4 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 90th percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 74 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 88th percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 81.1 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 7 archaeological periods, placing the ward in the 79th percentile NI-wide for chronological depth.

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

Heritage at a glance

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

111
Historic sites
91st percentile
4
Scheduled monuments
66th percentile
74
Listed buildings
88th percentile
0.68
Sites per km²

Population context

8
Persons per km²
4th percentile
81.1
Sites per 1,000 residents
97th percentile
2,331
Total residents (2021)

The recorded heritage of ROSSLEA

Of the 111 historic sites recorded, the most common are Burnt Mound (56, 50% of historic sites), Burnt Mounds (2) (6), and Platform Rath (5). For Burnt Mounds, this is the 84th percentile across NI wards that record this type. For Burnt Mounds (2)s, this is the 0th percentile across NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 278.9 km², this gives a recorded density of 0.68 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments are distributed across approximately 0.05° of latitude and 0.09° of longitude within the ward, indicating dispersed rather than clustered placement.

Most common monument types

TypeCountDescription
Burnt Mound 56 —
Burnt Mounds (2) 6 —
Platform Rath 5 —

Chronological distribution

Mesolithic
5
Middle Late Bronze Age
3
Iron Age
4
Early Medieval
24
Medieval
1
Post Medieval
62
Modern
3
Unknown
9

Terrain and environment

With a mean elevation of 135m, this ward sits above the NI median (85th percentile), with a maximum of 310m giving the ward meaningful vertical relief. The terrain is consistently steep, with a mean slope of 5.4° (81th percentile across NI). The ward is well-drained, with a Topographic Wetness Index of 9.8 (17th NI percentile) — characteristic of upland or steeply-sloping ground that sheds water rapidly. The land cover is dominated by improved grassland (74%) and woodland (24%). In overall character, this is an upland landscape of steep, elevated terrain, with land use dominated by improved grassland.

Terrain measurements

Mean elevation134.9 m 85th pct
Max elevation310.1 m 84th pct
Mean slope5.4° 81st pct
Wetness index (TWI)9.81 17th pct
Grassland74.2% 70th pct
Woodland24.3% 69th pct

Where this ward sits in NI

Elevation
85th
Slope
81st
Drainage
17th
Grassland
70th
Woodland
69th

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. Peat covers 17% of the ward. Peat-bound ground preserves organic archaeological material that would not survive on aerated mineral soils. 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 coverage17.2%
Bedrock complexity0.78

Placename evidence

The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 176 placenames for this ward. Diagnostic heritage strata identified within these are: 7 pre-Christian defensive (rath-, dún-, lios-, caiseal-), 19 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-)19 names
Pre-Christian Defensive (rath-, dun-, lis-)7 names
Anglo-Norman1 name

Scheduled monuments in ROSSLEA

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
Sweat HouseSweat HouseUnknown
Sweat HouseSweat HouseUnknown
Sweat HouseSweat HouseUnknown
Stone crossStone CrossUnknown

Recorded historic sites

NamePeriodType
A.P. SITE – 16 small circular cropmarksUnknownUnknown
BURNT MOUNDMesolithicAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDMesolithicAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDPost-MedievalAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDPost-MedievalAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDPost-MedievalAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDPost-MedievalAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDPost-MedievalAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDPost-MedievalAgriculture
BURNT MOUNDPost-MedievalAgriculture

Listed buildings in ROSSLEA

Address / NameGradePeriod
Bridge Killyvilly and Lisnawesnagh Rosslea Co FermanaghB21860 – 1879
St. Tierney's RC Church Rosslea Co Fermanagh BT92B11800 – 1819
St Macarten's R. C. Church Drumswords Rosslea Co Fermanagh BT92 7NQB21820 – 1839
Aghadrumsee C. of I. church Killygorman Rosslea Co Fermanagh BT92 7AUB11800 – 1819
12 Main Street Rosslea Co Fermanagh BT92 7PPRecord Only1820 – 1839
PAROCHIAL HOUSE CHURCH ST. ROSSLEA Enniskillen CO.FERMANAGHB2—
McElgunn’s Cottage 17 Mountdarby Road Killyfole Rosslea Co Fermanagh BT92 7QBB21840 – 1859
Turf House Opposite 9 Mount Darby Road Rosslea Co Fermanagh BT92 7QBB21880 – 1899
Outbuildings at Spring Grove Spring Grove Forest Rosslea ** See General Comments **B21840 – 1859
Holy Trinity Church (C of I) Cloghmore Rosslea Co. Fermanagh BT92 7DHB11820 – 1839

Further reading

Discover more in Fermanagh and Omagh

See all 462 wards in the Northern Ireland Heritage Tool.

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.