Thanks for the clarification.
I would suggest there is loads of material about this sort of thing in Wales some of which has been mentioned.
If you can get hold of "Man and his Habitat, Essays presented to Emyr Estyn Evans" there are some nice pieces in that including a paper by EG Bowen called "the dispersed habitat of Wales" which is a nice introduction. But to be honest there is just loads of material available for Wales and they really have studied this in much greater depth than I think has happened yet in Ireland. There's loads of stuff out there recording both the physical remains and working through the early maps and court rolls and so on. Look for stuff by Elwyn Davies and also the Royal Commission Survey volumes.
I think the situation is different in England though. The dispossessed in the great village clearances seem to have had little option but to head into the towns to become a very poor underclass, well that's the sort of Maurice Beresford line, not sure if this has been updated in the last 40 years! Don't think there was too much marginal land in England that people could go and squat on, well certainly not in the south and Midlands. Different again 'op north' I suppose. There's a good survey volume on the upland settlement in Cumbria that may be worth a look at. The first half is sheilings but the second half should be of use to you. It's 'Sheilings and Bastles' by Ramn, McDowall and Mercer. 1970 HMSO
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