{{short description|Defensive wall surrounding an Irish tower house}} {{for|the plain in Yemen|Al-Bawn}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[File:Ross Castle.jpg|thumb|Ross Castle with its surrounding bawn]] A '''bawn''' is the defensive wall surrounding an Irish tower house. It is the anglicised version of the Irish word ''bábhún'' (sometimes spelt ''badhún''), possibly meaning "cattle-stronghold" or "cattle-enclosure".<ref>See alternative traditional spellings under ''badhbhdhún'' in ''Foclóir Uí Dhuinnín'': http://www.scriobh.ie/Page.aspx?id=26&l=1 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412184957/http://scriobh.ie/page.aspx?id=26&l=1 |date=12 April 2020 }}. The standard modern spelling is ''bábhún'': Ó Domhnaill, Niall (eag.), ''Foclóir Gaeilge Béarla'', Baile Átha Cliath: Oifig an tSoláthair (1977), p. 73.</ref> The Irish word for "cow" is ''bó'' and its plural is ''ba''. The Irish word for "stronghold, enclosure" is ''dún'', whose genitive case is ''dúin''.
The original purpose of bawns was to protect cattle from attack. They included trenches that were often strengthened with stakes or hedges. Over time, these were gradually replaced by walls. The name then began to be used for the walls that were built around tower houses.
English and Scottish names for the same thing include "pele" (hence pele tower) and "barmkin".
==See also== *Tower houses in Britain and Ireland *Curtain wall
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/londonderry/A803459.shtml Bellaghy - Bawn]
{{Fortifications}}
Category:Fortification (architectural elements) *
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