05 Feb Ardagh Ringfort
Many of the 40,000 ringforts remaining in Ireland are well preserved, and all are now protected under the National Monuments Act. The Ardagh Ringfort, however,...
prehistoric Tag
25 Jan The Hill of Ward
(Tlachtga)
Surveys and excavations show Tlachtga was no isolated fort on a farmed ridge but part of a dense ritual and political landscape: a node in...
21 Jan Lissyviggeen Stone Circle
A few kilometers east of Killarney the tourist bustle falls away into quiet pasture and low fields. A ring of weather‑darkened stones rises from the...
27 Dec Fionn mac Cumhaill’s Fingers
(Shantemon Stone Alignment)
Standing beside the Bronze Age stone row today, it is easy to imagine those later ceremonies unfolding in its shadow—the continuity of assembly on the...
25 Dec Seefin Passage Tomb
High on a windswept summit in the Wicklow Mountains, where the tufts of bog cotton bend under the Atlantic gusts, a dome of stone breaks...
20 Dec Dún Dealgan
(Cúchulainn’s Castle)
Perched on a commanding ridge overlooking the Castletown River, Dún Dealgan represents one of the most strategically significant sites in Irish history. ...
11 Jul Abbeyquarter Passage Tomb
The Abbeyquarter Stones occupy the center of Ireland’s only traffic circle containing a prehistoric monument. Constructed as a home for the dead, it now serves...
16 Jun Folklore, Archaeology, and William Butler Yeats
[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" z_index=""][vc_column][vc_column_text]Irish poet William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 - 28 January 1939) was born into the Anglo-Irish...
17 Mar Experience Newgrange through a Head-Mounted Display
…a light began to glow and to pervade the cave, and to obliterate the stone walls and the antique hieroglyphics engraved thereon, and to melt...
09 Dec Fuerty Fairy Fort
According to Liam Connolly, the fairy fort in sight of his kitchen window was used as a burial ground during the terrible years of the...
20 Jun Bring Home the Inishmurray Relics
[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_empty_space height="40px"][vc_column_text] Roger Chambers Walker (1806-1854)…was a landlord, barrister and a noted Sligo antiquary…Walker combined the life of...
24 Jul Labbacallee Wedge Tomb
This tomb was built two millennia before the ascendancy of the Celts, whose legends named this monument the "Bed of the Witch [or hag]."...
10 May Stations of the Gleann Cholm Cille Turas: A Gazetteer
[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column][vc_column_text] Gleann Cholm Cille (Glencolumcille) — An Turas — The Journey "The stories preserve the enchanted landscape; the well and...
30 Dec Creevykeel Court Tomb
The site, right off the main Sligo-Bundoran road, allows a convenient stop. But it is difficult for the visitor to escape the traffic noise and...
14 Dec Proleek Dolmen
This site may be unique in Ireland as the only ancient monument likely to hide a golf ball hit into the rough. It is situated...
28 Nov The Black Pig’s Dyke
Because some of its segments correspond roughly to the modern border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the Black Pig’s Dyke has supplied...
25 Nov Loher Stone Fort
It is likely that a locally important chieftain built this fortified homestead in the Early Christian period. He certainly had a brilliant sense for its...
25 Nov The Grianán of Aileach
Bus loads of schoolchildren drive up the winding road where the Grianán of Aileach dominates the summit. As the youngsters disperse to explore the fort...
23 Nov The Mound of Down, and
Down Cathedral
The Mound of Down is but a short walk down the hill from Down Cathedral. The Mound dates from the Iron Age; the Cathedral was...
22 Nov Skellig Michael
"The scene is one so solemn and so sad that none should enter here but the pilgrim and the penitent." (Lord Dunraven, 1875) "The thing...
22 Nov Dún An Óir
There is little left to see at Dún An Óir. The earthworks from the hastily-constructed 1580 fortification have been eroded by weather and waves. There...
21 Nov The Hill of Uisneach
Of the Hills in Ireland where legends speak of a celebrated gathering several have seen a modern attempt at reviving the practice without any enduring...
20 Nov Binder’s Cove Souterrain
Binder's Cove souterrain may have been constructed as a place of refuge where its owners could escape when threatened, torches ablaze as they raced into...
17 Nov Aghade Holed Stone
(Cloghaphoill)
Niall of the Nine Hostages has been called the "Irish Genghis Khan" due to the number of his descendants. More than three million men around...
16 Nov Tullylin and Carns
Is it possible that there might be a connection between an ancient inauguration stone, a nearby fairy fort, and the apparition that appear to four...
16 Nov Dunbeg Fort (An Dún Beag)
In 1910 T.J. Westropp called Dunbeg "the most complex and remarkable of the Irish promontory forts." But archaeologists have few finds from the site. Why...
12 Nov Castlestrange La Tène Stone
The glory of the Castlestrange Estate has long since turned to ruin. However one remnant of its opulence still remains: the prehistoric La Tène decorated...
11 Nov Tobernaveen Holed Stone
The use of this stone in folk remedies did not end at the beginning of the twentieth century. A woman living very close to the...
09 Nov Carrowkeel Passage Tombs
The Carrowkeel passage tombs are only 20 minutes from the rushing traffic of the N4. But they are a world apart: a transition from a...
30 Oct Rathcroghan Royal Site
Rathcroghan has both a geographic and a symbolic presence. It is an archaeological treasure trove, but it also is the venue of a queen-goddess with...
27 Oct Mooghaun Hillfort and
the Great Clare Find
Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare The treasure trove of golden ornaments must have been connected to nearby Mooghaun Hillfort. But how did the gold come to be deposited...
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...
