The name ‘Celts’ (Gr: Keltoi) describes the Iron Age Hallstatt culture (800-450 BC) in central Europe. One group of Celts whom the Romans called Gauls remained in mainland Europe, while another group called the Britons settled in what is now known as England and Wales, and a third group called the Gaels arrived in Ireland from where later some of them migrated to Scotland and the Isle of Man.
The Celts in northwest Europe spoke insular Celtic, which consists of two groups of Celtic Indo-European languages that originated in Britain and Ireland. Brythonic (Brittonic) is the ancestral language of Welsh, Breton and the extinct Cornish; and Goidelic (Gaelic) is the ancestral language of Irish, Scottish Gaelic and the extinct Manx.
Languages, customs and practices can be spread by contacts resulting from trade or by immigrants assimilating/displacing the indigenous populations. Knowledge of events in Ireland before writing appeared in the fifth century AD has therefore had mostly to be deduced from the archaeological evidence.
Celtic influence in Ireland appeared around the middle of the fifth millennium BC and within a few hundred years it had all but replaced the Bronze Age culture. Hallstatt and La Tène ironware has been found, but it mostly consists of isolated objects without context, making interpretation difficult.
The first Celts in Ireland arrived in the first-millennium BC, they favoured multivallate (two or more ramparts) hillforts, in which the ramparts follow the contours of the land; but also built the smaller ringforts on (mostly excavated) flat mounds, which have ramparts that are terraced and concentric.
Each Irish kingdom is thought to have had its own royal seat for the Gaelic kings of Ireland. Historical sources associate these sites with medieval Irish kingdoms while archaeological investigations reveal that they were in fact culturally significant thousands of years before recorded history. Four of these were the royal sites of the provinces: Navan Fort, Co. Armagh, Ulster; Knockaulin, Co. Kildare, Leinster; Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon, Connacht; and the Rock of Cashel, Co. Tipperary, Munster.
Navan Fort (Emain Macha) is a hillfort, maximum diameter 250m, with a bank and an internal ditch enclosing a drumlin (glacial oval hill). Flint tools and shards of pottery show the site was active during the Neolithic period. Circular earthworks, each enclosing a roundhouse, were built between the Late Bronze Age to the first century BC. During this time, a series of figure-of-eight structures (max. diameter 30m) were formed by attaching round houses to larger enclosures entered via a fenced walkway. Around 100 BC the earlier structures were cleared away and replaced by a 40m diameter circular timber building within a circular banked and ditched enclosure. The building was filled with boulders and burnt; creating a pile of ash that was then covered in earth to form a mound. Emain Macha was the court of Conchobar mac Ness, the King of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.
Knockaulin (Dun Ailinne) is hillfort, maximum diameter 460m, with a bank and internal ditch. Excavations on the summit revealed a sequence of enclosures dating from the Neolithic to the first century BC. During the Iron Age, two palisaded enclosures (max. diameter 36m) were constructed in the figure-of-eight configuration, approached by a funnel-shaped, palisaded avenue. Later, a 42m diameter double-palisaded enclosure enclosed a 25m diameter open timber ring. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the main period of occupation was from the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD. According to Irish mythology, Dun Ailinne is believed to have been where the Kings of Leinster were inaugurated.
Rathcroghan (Ráth Cruachan) represents a complex of archaeological sites in County Roscommon, Connacht. Its monuments range from the Neolithic (4000 BC) through the Copper and Bronze ages to the Iron Age. The complex centres on Rathcroghan Mound that has a maximum diameter of 85m its base and is 6m high. It was surrounded by an earthen enclosure (now obscured), which has a maximum diameter of 370 metres. Non-destructive (i.e. not excavation) geophysical prospection shows that the mound covers three timber-built structures having diameters of 80, 35 and 20 metres respectively). Cruachu is identified as the site of the legendary seat of the Kings of Connacht, including Queen Medb and King Ailill of the Ulster Cycle.
The Hill of Tara (Teamhair), County Meath, Leinster, is a hillfort known as the Royal Enclosure (max. diameter 380m) with a bank and an internal ditch. Northwards, just beyond the centre there are two linked enclosures, a ringfort known as Cormac’s House, and a ring barrow called the Royal Seat. In the middle of the barrow is a standing stone believed to be the Stone of Destiny where the Irish kings were crowned. Further north of these is a small Neolithic passage tomb known as Duma na nGaill (‘Mound of Hostages’) built around 3400 BC.
The Rock of Cashel, County Tipperary, Munster is a large hill sixty metres high and thus was a natural choice for fortifications. Today, together with its height, the hill’s defensive qualities include a wall encircling its buildings and remnants of battlements on the cathedral. Cashel is reputed to be the site of the conversion of Óengus mac Nad Froích (59; 453-489), the King of Munster, by Saint Patrick (385-431).
Some of the Iron Age sites were supplemented by passages and chambers, later named as souterrains, often found within ringforts but are sometimes associated with promontory forts, open settlements and domestic structures. They were probably used for storage and refuge.
At Corlea, Co. Longford, Leinster a two metre long trackway was built across a bog. Timber from 370 oak trees felled in 148 BC was laid on alder and elm runners on heaped brushwood. The planks were split with wooden wedges and anchored down with pegs through mortises. The construction required a great deal of labour but its purpose is uncertain.
Dorsey, a village in Co. Armagh, Ulster, takes its name from Na Doirse (‘the Dorsey’), the gateways, an extensive earthwork built 100 BC that runs through south Armagh and are said to have been a fortified frontier to a kingdom (Ulaid) whose capital was Emain Macha (Navan Fort). Some time later Ulster was threatened from the south and it is speculated that Dorsey may have been incorporated into a more extensive defensive system known as the Black Pig’s Dyke.
Black Pig’s Dyke includes sections of linear earthworks and ditches found in nine counties: Donegal, Fermanagh in Ulster; south to Leitrim, Roscommon in Connacht; east to Longford in Wells Leinster; and back north to Cavan, Monaghan, Armagh and Down in Ulster. Excavation of a stretch in County Monaghan revealed that the original construction was timber palisade with an external ditch. The timber dated to 390-370 BC, so it is possible that most of the earthworks may date to around that period.
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