¹Gosling, Paul. “The route of Táin Bó Cúailnge in County Louth.” Archaeology Ireland, June 2015, Heritage Guide No. 69. Wordwell Ltd.

²Smyth, Daragh. Earthing the Myths: The Myths, Legends and Early History of Ireland. Irish Academic Press, 2021. p. 208 (Kindle Edition)
From his source:
"cell 10 aduaidh do Dún Delgan; the followers of Cellachán slain at the battle of Dún Delgan were interred in the cell by the N side of Dundalk, BLis 156; gusan cill don taeibh thuaidh do Dun Dealgan, CCC (ed. Bugge) 51. p. 680

³Gosling, Paul. “Placing Names in Táin Bó Cúailnge: The river 'Níth' and the ford 'Áth Carpat.’” Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, 2011, Vol.
27, No. 3 (2011), pp. 366-378.

⁴The Castletown River today is now navigable to to public docks, downriver from theTáin Bridge. But it is likely that the river was less silted earlier, as Saltown, 2 miles upstream, was where "Pirate Byrne" had his dock.]
According to this source, “It was also an important meeting point for feasting and the formation of alliances as when Brian Boru met with the King of Ulster.”

⁵Wright, Thomas. Louthiana, or, An introduction to the antiquities of Ireland. The Dundalgan Press, 1748. p. 7. Read here.

⁶Lawless, N. “Faughan, Druimenna, Lerga, Dundealgan.” Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Sep., 1909), pp.124-127.

⁷The Annals of the Four Masters were compiled between 1632 and 1636. An online translations is here. The passage quoted appears on p. 260.

⁸The standing stone is also associated in local folklore with Finn MacCumahail. See below.

⁹Gosling, Paul. “The route of Táin Bó Cúailnge in County Louth.” Archaeology Ireland, June 2015, Heritage Guide No. 69. Wordwell Ltd.

¹⁰Gosling, Paul. “From Dún Delca to Dundalk: The Topography and Archaeology of a Medieval Frontier Town A.D. c. 1187-1700.” Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, 1991, Vol.
22, No. 3 (1991), pp. 291.

¹¹In Ruth Canning’s review of Ireland’s English Pale, 1470–1550: the making of a Tudor region, she references a 1967 article by James Lydon entitled “The problem of the frontier in medieval Ireland.”
“He noted that 1446/7 was the earliest known mention of ‘the Pale’ as an identifiable term for what were known as ‘the four obedient shires’. The region was defined by a military frontier separating the English of Ireland from the indigenous Irish beyond.”

¹²Gosling, Paul. “From Dún Delca to Dundalk: The Topography and Archaeology of a Medieval Frontier Town A.D. c. 1187-1700.” Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, 1991, Vol. 22, No. 3 (1991), p. 293.

¹³Ibid, p. 286.

¹⁴The source continues:
“[The souterrain] is L-shaped in plan, consisting of a corbelled dry-stoned passage 6.8 m in length at the end of which there is a drop-hole giving access to a gallery 6.7m in length.”

¹⁵The "magic cat" is mentioned in this blog, but her source is unclear.
A plaque on the tower reads, “Erected by Patrick Byrne Esq., of Castletown for his Grand Nephew Patrick Byrne Esq., of Seatown. 1780"
Other "Pirate Byrne" stories may be read here, and here.

¹⁶In 1019 Peter Kavanagh recounted this legend in the Dundalk Democrat.

¹⁷Information was derived from this AI query.

¹⁸“Dun Dealgan.” Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Oct., 1910), p. 314.

¹⁹Bellingham, Henry. Mary Whitworth and Harry G. Tempest. “Dun Dealgan Purchase Fund.” The Celtic Review, Vol. 7, No. 26 (May 1911), pp. 189-190.

²⁰According to this school in Dundalk, “It wasn’t until the turn of the 20th century that the use of the name ‘Cuchulainn’s Castle’ became commonplace; prior to that it was known simply as Castletown Mount.”

²¹ According to a local source, the stone "...dates from the Bronze Age and is said to be the only prehistoric monument visible in Dundalk today. It has been known by a variety of names. The Book of Leinster refers to it as Lia Lingadan or ‘the stone of Lingadan’. Lingadan supposedly looked after cattle owned by Cuchulainn’s mother, Dechtene and may have provided this pillar as a scratching post for the animals. Others suggest that it marks the grave of Cuchulainn and Emer. Dealg Finn, or ’Finn’s Brooch’, is a more recent name, the theory being that it was a brooch dropped by Finn McCumhaill’s mother. This may also explain the origin of the name Dun Dealgan. The most likely explanation for its origin is that it was used as a route marker on an important ancient road called Sli Miodluachra that ran from Tara in Meath to Navan Fort in Armagh. This forerunner of the M1 would have skirted the Dun and forded the Castletown river at Toberona. Another similar stone on this route was removed when Castletown Cottages were being built a century ago."
Others say the stone marks the burial site of Cúchulainn, although most sources consider the standing stone at nearby Knockbridge as marking the hero's tragic demise.

²² James, Ronald M. “A Voracious Appetite; Interplay between the Storyteller and the Scribe.” Transformations of Oral and Written Narratives the Interdisciplinary Approach. Maciej Czeremski, Gregor Pobežin, Karol Zieliński (Eds.), Published by Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden, 2025, p. 273.

The author has additional insights on this topic:
"The tangle of the written and the oral is, then, a matter of sorting out influences even while understanding that there never was a definitive version of any story. Early folklorists sought the ur form of the various types of a folktale (extended, fictional narratives). These detectives of tradition hoped to find that primal moment when and where something was first told, but in its extended life, variation has always been key and origins were typically elusive."
"The way some movements integrated folk traditions and identity, including those that led to independence of Iceland, Ireland, Finland, Norway, and elsewhere, is often viewed as heroic."
"It is important to point out that a literary source for a folktale does not make it less a part of the Irish repertoire. The discovery merely removes it from being an old inheritance, something romantics often hope to find when searching for ancient, cherished remnants of Irish heritage."

A journal article in 1911 makes it clear that the "intimate dance" betwen text and the spoken word, at least for this author, was seen to occur on the stage of reality:
"No trace remains of the burial stone erected by Conall Cearnach over the grave of Cuchullain and Emer. I firmly believe that it is buried somewhere in the soil of the dun, and that a scientific excavation of the mound would not only disclose the stone but would also throw light on a great many points concerning which we are now in the dark. What a glorious possession the remains of Cuchullain would be, not only to Louth, but for Ireland and the whole Celtic race." (Murray, L., and Lorcan Ua Muireadhaigh. “Dundealgan and Its Pillar-Stone:The Lia Lingadan.” Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Nov., 1911), p. 397.)