27 historic sites 6 scheduled monuments 145 listed buildings 5 archaeological periods

ROSTREVOR covers 104.3 km² in Northern Ireland. With 27 historic sites and 6 scheduled monuments on record, the ward sits at the 89th percentile across all 462 NI wards for combined archaeological heritage. It also records 145 listed buildings (HED Historic Buildings Record), the 97th percentile for listed-building density across NI wards. Per 1,000 residents, this works out at 41.7 recorded sites — the 86th 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 5 archaeological periods, around the NI median for chronological depth.

Detailed boundary map of ROSTREVOR ward, Newry, Mourne and Down
ROSTREVOR boundary detail
Regional context map showing ROSTREVOR ward within Newry, Mourne and Down
ROSTREVOR in regional context

Heritage at a glance

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

27
Historic sites
61st percentile
6
Scheduled monuments
75th percentile
145
Listed buildings
97th percentile
1.71
Sites per km²

Population context

41
Persons per km²
34th percentile
41.7
Sites per 1,000 residents
86th percentile
4,271
Total residents (2021)

The recorded heritage of ROSTREVOR

Of the 27 historic sites recorded, the most common are Enclosure (5, 19% of historic sites), Rath (3), and Enclosure? (2). For Enclosures, this is the 45th percentile among NI wards that record this type. For Raths, this is the 23rd percentile across NI wards that record this type. Across the ward's 104.3 km², this gives a recorded density of 1.71 sites per km² (all heritage types combined). Scheduled monuments occupy a compact area within the ward (less than 0.04° of geographic spread), indicating clustered placement.

Most common monument types

TypeCountDescription
Enclosure 5
Rath 3
Enclosure? 2

Chronological distribution

Mesolithic
5
Iron Age
8
Early Medieval
9
Post Medieval
2
Modern
1
Unknown
2

Terrain and environment

A mean elevation of 214m places this ward in the top 3% of NI wards by altitude, but the ward reaches 482m at its highest point — a vertical span of more than 267m within its boundary, indicating significant topographic diversity. The terrain is consistently steep, with a mean slope of 11.3° (99th percentile across NI), with steeper local features reaching 27°. The ward is well-drained, with a Topographic Wetness Index of 8.3 (0th NI percentile) — characteristic of upland or steeply-sloping ground that sheds water rapidly. The land cover is dominated by improved grassland (60%) and woodland (37%). In overall character, this is an upland landscape of steep, elevated terrain, with land use dominated by improved grassland.

Terrain measurements

Mean elevation214.5 m 97th pct
Max elevation482.3 m 95th pct
Mean slope11.3° 100th pct
Wetness index (TWI)8.33 1st pct
Grassland60.4% 55th pct
Woodland37.0% 91st pct
Urban land2.0% 26th pct

Where this ward sits in NI

Elevation
97th
Slope
100th
Drainage
1st
Grassland
55th
Woodland
91st

Geology and preservation

The dominant bedrock formed during the Palaeozoic era (Silurian 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 0.98, 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 periodSilurian
Surface depositsTill
Peat coverage0.0%
Bedrock complexity0.98

Placename evidence

The combined OSNI, Logainm NI, and GeoNames sources record 29 placenames for this ward. Diagnostic heritage strata identified within these are: 8 ecclesiastical (cill-, teampall-, mainistir-, díseart-) and 3 Plantation-era (17th c English/Scots settlement 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-)8 names
Plantation Era3 names

Scheduled monuments in ROSTREVOR

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
Crosses (2), chuch and graveyardCrosses (2), Chuch And GraveyardUnknown
RathRathEarly Medieval
RathRathEarly Medieval
Standing Stone (no 1)Standing Stone (No 1)Early Bronze Age
Standing stoneStanding StoneEarly Bronze Age
18th- century grotto in grounds of former Carpenham Estate18Th- Century Grotto In Grounds Of Former Carpenham EstateUnknown

Recorded historic sites

NamePeriodType
A.P. SITE – circular enclosureIron AgeUnknown
Burnt moundMesolithicAgriculture
CAIRN (unlocated)MesolithicRitual/Funerary
CASHELEarly MedievalDefence
CHURCHUnknownReligious
CROSSES (2); MULTIPERIOD CHURCH; GRAVEYARDS; HOLY WELL: KILBRONEY or ST.BRIDGET'S WELLEarly MedievalRitual/Funerary
ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown
ENCLOSUREIron AgeUnknown

Listed buildings in ROSTREVOR

Address / NameGradePeriod
KILBRONEY PARISH CHURCH, ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNB
23 CHURCH ST. ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNB
25 CHURCH ST. ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNB
PAROCHIAL HOUSE, CHURCH ST. ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNRecord Only
FAIRY HILL CHURCH ST. ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNB1
OUR LADY'S R C CHURCH, CHURCH ST. ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNB
THE VICARAGE KILBRONEY ROAD ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNB1
BENVENU KILBRONEY ROAD ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNB1
MEMORIAL KILBRONEY GRAVEYARD ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNB
KILBRONEY GATE LODGE 79 KILBRONEY ROAD ROSTREVOR CO.DOWNB1

Discover more in Newry, Mourne and Down

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.

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.