Settlement

1. Settlement

2. Definitions • Site: the land or area on which a settlement is built • Situation: location in relation to the surrounding area • Function: intended purpose for the settlement (can change over time)

3. Site: • Area’s main physical characteristics • Close to water supply • Altitude: low lying • Aspect: south facing slopes • Dry point – good defensive sites • Nodal points • Resources: minerals • Coastal areas

4. Situation: • Location of settlement in relation to surrounding area • Natural routeways: gaps & valleys • Developed routeways: transport lines • Function: • Towns main economic activities • Towns today are multi fiunctional

5. R eligious I ndustrial C ommercial & Communications E ducational P orts O pen Spaces (recreational) T ourism S ervices

6. Physical factors effecting locationquestions to ask… • Relief: is the land flat enough to build on? • Drainage: is there a water supply near by and is the land well drained? • Soil quality: can the land provide food? • Altitude: is the site on low land? • Aspect: is the site in a sunny sheltered location

7. Advantages offered by river sites • Water and food supply • A fertile floodplain • Flat land which is easy to build on and travel across • Transport: either on the river or across it • Defence: river bends and islands are easily defended

8. The site of Irish Settlements • Sheltered harbour- Dungarvan, Co. Waterford • Bridging point- Ballina, Co, Mayo • Route focus: Mullingar, Co. Westmeath • Dry point: Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly • Centre of fertile farmland, Athy, Co. Kildare

9. Describing distribution Describe where people are located Link this to factors refer to areas where people are absent and why they are absent Describing density Note areas with significant amount of housing Link to factors favouring settlement Note areas of dispersed or clustered settlement etc by using map evidence Distribution and density of settlements on OS Maps

10. Development of settlement on maps and photographs • You are expected to identify and locate by 6-figure grid reference and then describe and explain various periods of past and modern settlements • All ancient settlements are labelled as antiquities on the OS map

11. Historic Settlements: What to look for on OS maps

13. Historic Settlements: What to look for OS Maps

17. The historic development of Dublin:case study • Dublin city has developed over many centuries. Traced through evidence. • Viking Dublin (800-1000) • Easily defended site of the black pool (Dubh Linn) • Dry point of the river Liffey • Nearby settlement of Ath Cliath (west) provided wealth, goods for plunder and a market • Native population captured sold into slavery • Dublin very important port in the Viking world (outside Scandinavia) • Excavations at Wood Quay showed main features ie. Religious buildings, areas for markets, craftwork, food storage, fortified areas

18. The historic development of Dublin:case study • Norman Dublin (1100-1500) • Norman invasion major effect on the Irish landscape • Characteristics of a Norman town incl. moat, castle, town walls and gates, market place, church/monastery/priory • Important buildings made of stone (Norman walls and gates still intact on Cook Street) • Castle was built close to the Viking high street, walls surrounded the whole of Dubh Linn • Dublin castle stood in the strategic location beside Dublin bay. • Native Irish were not allowed to stay within the walls after dark. An irish only settllement developed outside the town, eg. Irishtown in Ringsend.

19. The historic development of Dublin:case study • Georgian Dublin (1700-1800) • Time of growth and construction. • Stone structures replaced wooden structures • Wealth reflected in buildings such as Custom house, Four Court and the GPO • Home to members of the Irish parliament (wealthy Protestant land owners) lived in 3/4 stories town houses overlooking private squares which acted as rural retreats in the city. • 1801 Act of Union past meaning ireland couldn’t govern itself. Many landlords left the city taking the wealth with them • Townhouses became rundown and began to house poorer people leading to the development of tenements and slums.

20. The historic development of Dublin:case study • Twentieth century Dublin • Poverty and devastation through the 1916 rising, civil war and world wars • Post war years planned large housing estates on the outskirts of city ie. Crumlin • Many inner city families rehoused in new estates • 1960s three new towns built around the villages of Tallaght, Lucan/Clondalkin and Blanchardstown • High rise flats build in Ballymun • 1980s large out migration industry and housing left vacant and derelict

21. The historic development of Dublin:case study • 1990s urban renewal and the Celtic Tiger dublin emerged as an attractive place to live and work. • Derlict buildings and vacant lands were redeveloped and renewed into apartment buildings etc • The IFSC, Docklands, Temple Bar • 2000+ recession paused the construction of projects • Unfinished ghost buildings are visible on the dockland

22. Rural settlement patterns Rural areas, individual houses make up settlement pattern • Dispersed settlement pattern • Clustered settlement pattern • Linear/ribbon settlement pattern • Absence settlement pattern

23. Scattered over a wide area Individual farmhouses surrounded by farmland, separated from each other Today the pattern can be seen when houses are located at the end of long roads Dispersed Settlement Pattern

24. Dispersed Settlement Patterns • Long tradition in Ireland • Before the 18th century open field system of farming was practised (common land) • Usually surround central settlement • After 18th century the system changed land was enclosed by fences and hedges • Farm houses were built on there own land that was worked to the benefit of the farmer • Dispersed pattern developed by isolated farmhouses surrounded by fields

25. Houses grouped together Can be found around source of water or a church Road junctions can also be points of clustered settlement Clustered settlement patterns

26. Clustered settlement patterns • Upland areas in the West of Ireland sign of the old farming system • Clachans: small cluster of houses usually owned by extended family • Small villages built during landlord times for estate workers • Nucleated generally applied to urban settlement

27. Arranged in a line usually along a road or a scenic coastal view Linear/Ribbon Settlement Patterns

28. Linear/Ribbon Settlement Patterns • Many people prefer to live in rural areas close to towns to access services • Roads entering towns have services ie. Sewerage, water facilities, telephone and electricity cables • Less expensive for local authorities to provide them along main roads than each individual laneway • Roadsides are valuable places in which to live • Farmers often sell the more valuable road frontage sites for housing • Leads to unsightly linear pattern or ‘bungalow blitz’

29. Absence of settlement • Area of land may have no settlement due to both physical and human factors • Physical: relief, altitude, aspect, exposure to the wind, poor soil or lack of water supply • Human: out migration, abandonment of farms

30. Absence of settlement • Avoid living in land 200m above sea level (wetter/colder), Soils are thinner and land is steeper • Low lying areas may be absent: river floodplains (if there is settlement usually on a dry point) • Social: out migration and exhaustion of resources

32. Reasons for the growth of rural housing • Housing development in rural areas built to accomadate people working in nearby towns (commuters) • Linear development resulting in pressure on services • Holiday homes develop along senic coastal areas

33. Rural Planning One off housing Explosion of linear housing – exit routes Celtic Tiger era (1997-2007) 2nd homes, B&B’s Declined – tax levies

34. Issues in planning housing development • Provision of services- water, electricity, broadband • Provision of employment opportunities in rural for less community • Loss of scenic amenity value created by one-off housing • Problems of water quality due to seepage from greater number of septic tanks • Rising land prices in rural areas. Locals cannot afford land prices • Planning permission controls in scenic areas • Traffic management issues due to increased commuters

35. Problems associated • Ghost estates due to recession people moving futher outside the city • many estates left unfinished • 621 ghost estates in Ireland • Nearly every county has one • Worst effected area in Leitrim

36. Measures to support rural population growth The National Development Plan 2007-2013 • Providing transport infrastructure to link rural areas to urban centres (Transport 21) • Broadband provision throughout country • Supporting rural resource based industries such as agriculture and food • Village renewal to make villages attractive to live • Increase tourist potential • Provision of good quality waster supply to rural areas • Provision of education and training schemes for rural population • Social inclusion, especially older population • Preservation of scenic areas

37. Measures to support rural population growth County Development Plan • Each county has its own development plan • Rural Development plan: • Protect the distinctiveness of the rural areas • Prevent suburbanisation • Strict planning laws • Wicklow: planning permission for individual housing in rural areas is only granted to people born and raised in the county or those that have been living or working there for over a year • Westmeath: planning in rural areas is only granted to residents or natives . Those who get permission must occupy the house for more than a year • Concerned about: Rural service provision, traffic management, pollution, scenic quality, expanding commuter services • Updated every 5 years

38. Functions of Urban settlements

39. Functions of Urban settlements

40. Functions changing over time • Settlements have changed over time • In answering this question look at the following

41. Changing functions in Galway city • Located relatively flat site on the banks of river Corrib • Large hinterland, major urban centre in the West and fourth largest in Ireland • Medieval: Norman landlord built a castle on the land seized from Irish clans (Defensive Function), • quickly developed a port function with trade links growing with France (Merchant City) • City walls have survived • Lynch’s Castle in the city centre (used as a bank since 1927

42. Changing functions in Galway city • Port function: important port for centuries • Distribution centre for its hinterland acquiring a transport function • Bridges built made it an important crossing point • Port function has declined since the importance of the ports in the south and east has expanded

43. Changing functions in Galway city • Educational function: 1845 became a university city • Location of the university enhanced the importance of the city • Recent years: Galway Mayo Institute of technology- the Regional Hospital is a teaching hospital • Many schools both primary and secondary

44. Changing functions in Galway city • Manufacturing function: • Major centre west of the Shannon • Location of multinational companies in healthcare and IT • High quality of 3rd level graduates and Industrial development authority • Led to residential estates cropping up

45. Changing functions in Galway city • Other services: • Fourth largest city in the Republic • Financial, commercial, retail and tourist services • Link with the Irish language • Functions changing over time

46. Central Place Theory • Devised by Walter Christaller in the 1930s • Towns located on a plain were spaced a certain distance apart so they would not compete for the same costumer, not by sheer chance • Studied towns in Bavaria, Germany • Theory maintains that if there is even distribution, equal money, transport opportunities, if the land is flat and featureless then settlements are distributed according to size

47. What's wrong with circles? What’s wrong with circles Source: http://www.uwec.edu/bfoust/155/G155_RS3/sld002.htm

48. Central place theory

49. Central Place Theory • A Central Place is a settlement which provides one or more services for the population living around it. • Simple basic services (e.g. grocery stores) are said to be of low order while specialized services (e.g. universities) are said to be of high order. Having a high order service implies there are low order services around it, but not vice versa.

50. Central Place Theory • Settlements which provide low order services are said to be low order settlements. • Settlements that provide high order services are said to be high order settlements. • The sphere of influence is the area of under influence of the Central Place.