wallstead

plural wallsteads

1. A site with the remains of a building or buildings, especially one with wall remnants still standing.

   The dumb animals refused to leave the wallsteads, and in some cases were with difficulty rescued from the falling timbers.

   1877, A.M. Sullivan, New Ireland: Political Sketches and Personal Reminiscences of Thirty Years of Irish Public Life, Glasgow: Cameron & Ferguson, page 228

   3 more examples

   "You're too 'feared, but my sister Rose willna be 'feared for me, — tell her to meet me to-morrow evening, in the old wallsteads."

   1876 November 29, The Dublin University Magazine, page 611, column 1

   Till the works of the city-dwellers, the works of the giants of earth, Stood empty and lorn of the burst of the mighty reveller's mirth. Who wisely hath mus'd on this wallstead, and ponders this dark life well, n his heart he hath often bethought him of slayings many and fell[.]

   1881, E.H. Hickey, “The Wanderer”, in A Sculptor, and Other Poems, London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Co., page 175

   So Grendel ruled in definace of right, one against all, until the greatest house in the world stood empty, a deserted wallstead.

   1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 7