05 Aug Loughcrew Passage Tomb Complex (Sliabh na Caillíghe)
Oldcastle, Co. Meath On his visit to the Loughcrew hills, also called Sliabh na Caillíghe (The Hill of the Witch) Jonathan Swift heard tales of...
archaeology Tag
03 Aug Stonehenge
Salisbury Plain, England No, Stonehenge is not in Ireland. But according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Merlin the magician moved Stonehenge from Ireland to England as a...
03 Aug Rostellan Dolmen
Rostellan, Co. Cork Nearly submerged by the tide, the Rostellan Dolmen is the only example of such a "Diarmuid and Gráinne's Bed" to wear a garland...
31 Jul The Hill of Tara
Tara has for generations served as the geographic focus for an aspirational sense of national glory, “the most consecrated spot in Ireland,” where blood was...
29 Jul Cloghanmore Court Tomb
Malin More, Co. Donegal After Cloghanmore was dug out of the bog in the nineteenth century, it was "a ruinous pile," with its roofing-stones tossed aside...
29 Jul The Gleann Cholm Cille Turas
Gleann Cholm Cille, Co. Donegal The Turas is a religious procession that visits 15 different stations in the hills and valleys of this stunningly beautiful spot...
25 Jul Teltown (Tailteann)
Kells, Co. Meath The Teltown Fair was said to include Olympic-like competitions of strength and agility, even horse races and staged battles. There was also a...
04 May The Calf House, or Druid’s Altar
Burren Forest Park, Co. Cavan Known as "The Druid’s Altar," for the legendary bloody sacrifices it was reputed to have witnessed, and as the "The Calf...
04 May Ballynahatty Giant’s Ring
Ballynahatty, Co. Down Unique in the country for its central stone tomb, this monument is the largest enclosed ceremonial space in Ireland. The top of the...
03 May Baslicon Dolmen
Waterville, Co. Kerry This low monument south of Waterville is said to be the grave of Fial, a woman of the invading tribe who died from...
03 May Ballyvourney Monastic Site
Ballyvourney, Co. Cork St. Gobnait's monastic site contains two holy wells and the reputed grave of this sixth-century holy woman within a ruined prehistoric tomb. It...
03 May Ardnamagh Fairy Fort
Moynalty, Co. Meath Ireland has remnants of more than 45,000 ringforts. There were once many more, now leveled and lost. That so many have survived is...
03 May Ballymacdermot Court Tomb
Killeavy, Co. Armagh The earliest oral traditions speak of the Dé Danann. Later poets re-worked these legends into ballads celebrating the conflicts with the Viking. Thus...
03 May Tara Fort
Portaferry, Co. Down Tara Fort sits on a prominent hilltop southeast of Portaferry, on Northern Ireland’s Ards Peninsula. Thomas McKeating claimed that "these fairies were supposed...
03 May Ballina Dolmen
(Dolmen of the Four Maols)
Ballina, Co. Mayo It is tantalizing for the modern visitor to imagine that within the folklore surrounding a particular prehistoric monument somehow, through the millennia, there...
03 May Athgreany Piper’s Stones
Hollywood, Co. Wicklow The green Wicklow Hills setting provides a serene background for this sad tale of merriment gone wrong, the piper and his dancers suddenly...
03 May Altar Wedge Tomb
and Mass Rock
Goleen, Co. Cork From its construction in the late Stone Age the Altar Wedge Tomb, with its dramatic waterfront location on Toormore Bay, was the site...
03 May Legananny Dolmen
Castlewellan, Co. Down When a man-made structure has been a distinctive part of the local landscape for perhaps 4,500 years, it has earned its iconic status....
21 Apr The City and
the Paps of Anu
Rathmore, Co. Kerry "When you stand in the middle of the Cathair you get great feeling of satisfaction that you're standing here on one of the...
21 Apr Staigue Fort
Sneem, Co. Kerry The local peasantry called the building Staig an air, which was translated as "Windy House, or "The Staired Place of Slaughter." It was...
21 Apr Eightercua Alignment
Waterville, Co. Kerry The Eighercua Stone Alignment looks west to Ballinskelligs Bay and the open ocean. The mound on which it sits was likely a ritual...
21 Apr Lough Gur
Bruff, Co. Limerick There is no other spot in Ireland so rich in the evidence of prehistoric habitation and ceremony, and also in the mythic traditions...
21 Apr Magh Adhair
Tulla, Co. Clare Did the memory of a first-century warrior’s grave so impress itself upon the early Dalcassians that they enshrined its sanctity for the inauguration...
21 Apr Newgrange
Slane, Co Meath In 1699 the proprietor of the townland of New Grange needed stones for building. He dug into the scrub-covered mound on his land...
21 Apr Béal Ború – Brian Boru’s Fort
Killaloe, Co. Clare Within a trench dug into the ringfort the archaeologists discovered evidence of a rectangular wooden building, paved with large slabs of stone...
20 Apr Burren Forest Giant’s Grave
Burren Forest Park, Co. Cavan Many of Ireland's megalithic monuments—portal tombs, court cairns, or wedge tombs such as this one—are known locally as "the giant's grave."...
20 Apr Kilclooney Dolmen
Portnoo, Co. Donegal This dolmen is a monumental shape-shifter, suggesting visual allusions, or acting as a megalithic Rorschach Test. People have described it as resembling a...
10 Mar Drombeg Stone Circle
Glandore, Co. Cork Drombeg presides over a view that gently swoops down to the Atlantic a mile distant. Its organically sculpted, honey-colored stones form a circle...