25 Nov Loher Stone Fort
Waterville, Co. Kerry It is likely that a locally important chieftain built this fortified homestead in the Early Christian period. He certainly had a brilliant sense...
fort Tag
25 Nov The Grianán of Aileach
Burt, Co. Donegal Bus loads of schoolchildren drive up the winding road where the Grianán of Aileach dominates the summit. As the youngsters disperse to explore...
23 Nov The Mound of Down, and
Down Cathedral
Downpatrick, Co. Down The Mound of Down is but a short walk down the hill from Down Cathedral. The Mound dates from the Iron Age; the...
16 Nov Tullylin and Carns
Culleens, Co. Sligo Is it possible that there might be a connection between an ancient inauguration stone, a nearby fairy fort, and the apparition that appear...
16 Nov Dunbeg Fort (An Dún Beag)
Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry In 1910 T.J. Westropp called Dunbeg "the most complex and remarkable of the Irish promontory forts." But archaeologists have few finds from...
20 Oct Minard Castle,
Ring Fort, and Holy Well
Anascaul, Co. Kerry The drama of the Anglo-Irish conflict, explosively played out here in 1650, was—more than 300 years later—the backdrop for the 1970 film Ryan’s...
15 Oct Howth Dolmen
Howth, Co. Dublin Nineteenth-century antiquarian Samuel Ferguson believed it to be the grave of the legendary Aideen, who died of grief when her husband Oscar was...
14 Oct Cahergal and Leacanabuaile Forts,
Ballycarbery Castle
Kimego West, Co. Kerry The two forts are known in Irish as caiseal, not far from the Irish word for castle, caisleán. In local legend, the...
28 Aug Cairn Thierna
Fermoy, Co. Cork A tumbled pile of stone now seems a secondary feature to the large illuminated Christian cross on the summit of Corrin Hill. But...
24 Aug Caherconree Promontory Fort
Camp, Co Kerry Cú Roí mac Dáire was a legendary sorcerer, an evil magician who resided in the south of Ireland in the brutal tribal era...
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 Dún Aonghasa (Dun Aengus)
Inishmore, Co. Galway Dun Aengus is precariously perched on the edge of a vertical cliff, perhaps parts of it already fallen down into the churning waters...
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 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 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...