A new research project building on previous work on hospitals and monasteries aims to provide a comprehensive examination of the archaeological signature of the military orders in the British Isles and Ireland. This work will initially focus on the survey of new sites, combined with a comprehensive review of available excavation reports.
The aim is to provide an updated review of the way the military orders utilised architecture to organise their daily life and functional operation of the site. This will be used to investigate the way that the different roles the orders had, being religious warriors, elite landowners, and religious communities associated with monastic living and hospitality, influenced the use of buildings and the organisation of sites.