forts historical ireland

A ringfort with a clay wall four feet high and lined with stones. Near the south side are the foundations of a beehive hut. The original entrance was probably on the west, and five stones still stand outside. Inside is an Ogham stone with tie inscription D....A.... AVI DALAGNI later superseded by EQQEGGNI MAQI MAQI-CARRATTINN....

Eochaill fort is situated about 1km south/south-east of the old lighthouse. It is one of the great forts of the island and has two concentric dry masonery ramparts, the inner one terraced. In the inner enclosure are the remains of two clochans. The fields to the west and south are littered with ancient remains....

This site was regarded as one of the most potentially significant sites in the entire area. A Promontory Fort is essentially a defensive structure and they have been dated to the Early Iron Age. This one consists of an extensive and very well preserved complex of earthworks with wide views of Kinvara Bay.

The tomb consists of a simple chamber, with sides and back formed of large single stones, capped with a roofstone. The smaller field stones on top are perhaps remains of the original e...

Probably an Iron Age sanctuary originally, this was later to become the inauguration place of the O'Neill chieftains of Tyrone. Here at the clan seat of O'Hagan, hereditary stewards to the O'Neills, the ceremony was conducted in the presence of the assembled under-chiefs, with the recipient installed in an ancient stone chair said to have been blessed by St. Patrick. The Great Hugh O'Neill was himself thus enthroned at Tullaghoge in 1593. That the inauguration chair, a rough construction of s...

This magnificent caher or stone fort, is the most impressive and awe-inspiring of all the Aran Forts. Its three outer walls, with the exception of the remnants of the inner curtain, have disappeared but the massive fortress wall itself, built of stones, is almost intact.

Standing with its northern part on a cliff over a small valley, it measures 70m from north to south and 35m from east to west....

Clogher controlled the only major route between eastern and western Ulster, and its pivotal position in the Clogher valley led some 2,000 years ago to the creation there of a hill-fort on a small hillock close to the modern Bishop's Palace. Excavations proved its significance when imports of pottery and metal work from southern England of c.100 B.C. -A.D. 100 were discovered on the site, demonstrating its extensive trade contacts. In the early years of Christianity in Ireland, Clogher had beco...

The first significant hill outside Glaslough on the Emyvale road, right, is Drumbanagher Hill, site of a 10th century Viking fort, probably established as a springboard from which to attack Old Donagh Church. The opening shots of the war between James II and William III of England were fired here in 1688. William's victory in that war, which was secured at Aughrim in Galway in 1691, opened the door for the most repressive Penal Laws in 1695, which restricted the rights of Catholics to educat...

Although ring-forts of earth and stone had their origins in pre-history, possibly in the Bronze Age, this type of enclosed settlement continued in use for a very long time and became very numerous in the early Christian period. Some, indeed, were rebuilt or extended in the Middle Ages as defensible homesteads even though by that time mortared castles and tower-houses dominated the countryside. Cahermacnaghten, 4 miles east-north-east of the spa resort of Lisdoonvarna, was occupied as late...

An exceptionally interesting though sadly defaced cashel, 1 mile north-east of Kilfenora. The ring-wall encloses an oval space 150 feet by 130 feet and survives to a height of 12 feet or so. Although incomplete it shows a fair standard of building work, incorporating unusually large blocks of stone in the construction of its lower courses. An abundance of easily quarried limestone accounts for the remarkable number of stone forts in the Burren (about 500 are known in the area of 100 square mi...

There are three concentric walls, all abutting on to the edge of the cliff, as at Dun Aenghus on the Aran Islands. The innermost wall, which is also the thickest forms an almost complete circle, but the two outer walls (connected with each other by subsidiary walls, like a fan) only form a semicircle. The innermost wall contains three chambers within the wall, and excavation by the Harvard Archaeological Expedition to Ireland in 1934 showed that the roughly circular area it enclosed had a doze...