Ireland An Oxford Archaeological Guide to Sites from Earliest Times to AD 1600

569 Pages·2006·9.45 MB·English

by  Andrew Halpin

Oxford Archaeological Guides
General Editor: Barry Cunliffe
Ireland
Andy Halpin is Assistant Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National
Museum of Ireland. Educated at University College, Dublin and at
Trinity College, Dublin, his research interests include the
archaeology of medieval Dublin and medieval weapons and warfare.
He is the author of numerous papers in scholarly journals and of
The Port of Medieval Dublin (2000).
Conor Newman lectures in Archaeology at the National University
of Ireland, Galway. He was director of the Discovery Programme’s
acclaimed archaeological survey of Tara. His publications concern
landscape archaeology and art-history and he is the editor of the
Journal of Irish Archaeology.
Barry Cunliffe is Professor of European Archaeology at the
University of Oxford. The author of more than forty books,
includingThe Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe (Oxford
University Press, 1994), he has served as President of the Council
for British Archaeology and the Society of Antiquaries, and is
currently a member of the Ancient Monuments Advisory
Committee of English Heritage.
Oxford Archaeological Guides
England Timothy Darvill, Paul Stamper, and Jane Timby
Rome Amanda Claridge
Scotland Anna and Graham Ritchie
TheHolyLand Jerome Murphy-O’Connor
Spain Roger Collins
SouthernFrance Henry Cleere
Greece Antony Spawforth and Christopher Mee
Ireland
An Oxford Archaeological Guide to Sites
from Earliest Times to AD 1600
Andy Halpin and Conor Newman
1
3
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Series Editor’s Foreword
Travelling for pleasure, whether for curiosity, nostalgia, religious convic-
tion or simply to satisfy an inherent need to learn, has been an essential
part of the human condition for centuries. Chaucer’s ‘Wife of Bath’
ranged wide, visiting Jerusalem three times as well as Santiago de Com-
postela, Rome, Cologne, and Boulogne. Her motivation, like that of so
many medieval travellers, was primarily to visit holy places. Later, as the
Grand Tour took a hold in the eighteenth century, piety was replaced
by the need felt by the élite to educate its young, to compensate for the
disgracefully inadequate training offered at that time by Oxford and
Cambridge. The levelling effect of the Napoleonic Wars changed all that
and in the age of the steamship and the railway mass tourism was born
when Mr Thomas Cook first offered ‘A Great Circular Tour of the
Continent’.
There have been guidebooks as long as there have been travellers.
Though not intended as such, the Histories of Herodotus would have
been an indispensable companion to a wandering Greek. Centuries later
Pausanias’ guide to the monuments of Greece was widely used by travel-
ling Romans intent on discovering the roots of their civilization. In the
eighteenth century travel books took on a more practical form offering
a torrent of useful advice, from dealing with recalcitrant foreign inn-
keepers to taking a plentiful supply of oil of lavender to ward off bed-
bugs. But it was the incomparable ‘Baedekers’ that gave enlightenment
and reassurance to the increasing tide of enquiring tourists who flooded
the Continent in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The battered
but much-treasured red volumes may still sometimes be seen in use
today, pored over on sites by those nostalgic for the gentle art of travel.
The needs and expectations of the enquiring traveller change rapidly
and it would be impossible to meet them all within the compass of single
volumes. With this in mind, the Oxford Archaeological Guides have
been created to satisfy a particular and growing interest. Each volume
provides lively and informed descriptions of a wide selection of archaeo-
logical sites chosen to display the cultural heritage of the country in
question. Plans, designed to match the text, make it easy to grasp the full
extent of the site while focusing on its essential aspects. The emphasis is,
necessarily, on seeing, understanding, and above all enjoying the particu-
lar place. But archaeological sites are the creation of history and can only
be fully appreciated against the longue durée of human achievement. To
provide this, each book begins with a wide-ranging historical overview
introducing the changing cultures of the country and the landscapes
which formed them. Thus, while the Guides are primarily intended for
the traveller they can be read with equal value at home.
Barry Cunliffe
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Contents
How to use this Guide ix
Introduction:Ireland from first settlers to the seventeenth
century  1
North-east: Antrim, Armagh, Down 55
North-west: Derry, Donegal, Tyrone 111
North Midlands: Cavan, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Longford,
Monaghan 151
West: Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo 176
East:Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Wicklow 252
Shannon:Clare, Limerick, Offaly, North Tipperary 360
South-east:Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford,
Wexford 429
South-west:Cork, Kerry 492
Museums 540
Chronology 541
Glossary 543
Further Reading 546
Index 549
viii
Acknowledgements
Our first debt of gratitude is to our respective families, for their support
and forbearance. We wish to thank our colleagues at the Department
of Archaeology, N.U.I., Galway and the Irish Antiquities Division of
the National Museum of Ireland. Special thanks go to John Waddell
for providing practical help when it was needed. Thanks are also due
to Dara Keane, Roseanne Schot, Eamonn O’Donoghue, and Edel
Bhreathnach for assistance at various stages of the project, and to the
many other friends and colleagues who so kindly granted us permission
to reproduce images from their own publications: Stefan Bergh, John
Bradley, Barrie Hartwell, Brian Lacey, Jim Mallory, Tom McNeill, Billy
O’Brien, Celie O’Rahilly, Tadhg O’Keeffe, Elizabeth Shee-Twohig, David
Sweetman, and John Waddell. We also acknowledge the generous per-
mission of the following institutions to reproduce drawings: the Society
of Antiquaries of London, the Collins Press (Cork), the Discovery
Programme (Dublin), Dundalgan Press (Dundalk), Government Pub-
lications/Stationery Office (Dublin), HMSO (Belfast), Kells Region
Economic & Tourism Enterprise Ltd, Ordnance Survey Ireland (Dublin),
Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland (Belfast), the Royal Archaeo-
logical Institute (London), the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin), the Royal
Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (Dublin), the Cork Archaeological and
Historical Society and the Ulster Archaeological Society (Belfast). Many
of the photographs credited to the Department of Archaeology, NUI,
Galway, were taken by Professor Etienne Rynne.
While it has not been possible to consult with the experts on each
and every place or monument, we have picked their brains in different
ways and hope that in so doing we are not too far off the mark! Finally,
we are grateful to the dozens of landowners and local enthusiasts who
gave us directions and permission to visit the monuments in their care.
While the State has statutory responsibility for the care of ancient
monuments, the great legacy of field antiquities in Ireland is the product
of the respect accorded to them by generations of landowners. This is a
tradition that must endure, for we are but temporary custodians of Irish
and world heritage.
ix
How to use this Guide
It would not be possible to write a complete guide to the archaeological
and historical sites of Ireland. The best we can do is to guide you to as
broad a cross-section of sites as possible in the hope that what you learn
from them will whet, and educate, your appetite for more. An enduring
attraction of touring archaeological sites is the fascinating people and
places you find along the way. And though we have tried to make our
directions as clear as possible, it has been our experience that losing
yourself in the Irish countryside is the surest way of finding the real
Ireland. Irish people have a deep pride in, and sense of ownership of,
their own history, and respond with enthusiasm to enquiries about local
archaeological and historical sites; so do not be afraid to ask! As often as
not, people will share with you some of their own local knowledge and
traditions, and direct you to yet further places of interest.
The forging of individual and social identities compels people to erect
monuments. Just as today we try to accommodate—or sometimes
disregard—ancient relics and traditions, so too did people long ago
carve out lives amongst the monuments and memories of the past.
This convergence of old and new is what creates historical meaning in
human society. Thus, cultural landscapes are made up of monuments of
different periods. This is why archaeologists routinely examine whole
landscapes that together comprise the homes, neighbourhoods, and
territories of the past. For this reason, instead of simply describing
individual monuments, in this guidebook we have attempted to guide
the reader to landscapes of the past, rural and urban. The monuments
and places described in this book are, therefore, a combination of access-
ible National Monuments and others on private land. Monuments on
private land should never be visited without the permission of the land-
owner and the usual rules of the countryside apply such as always
closing gates behind you, never entering a field with cattle or horses, and
telling someone where you are going.
Human society is often shaped by the overriding character of the
landscape it inhabits, the mountains, wetlands, and sea shore. A number
of more or less distinct adaptive niches existed in Ireland, from the wet,
flat, and boggy midlands, to the upland peninsulas of the south-west,
and these surely affected aspects of behaviour and cultural identity. In an
attempt to reflect this we have arranged this guidebook into seven
regions, choosing sites and monuments that reflect the character and
cultural history of each area from prehistory to the end of the Middle
Ages. As far as possible, these regions correspond with those adminis-
tered by the regional tourism boards. Within each regional section,
individual monuments or landscapes are arranged in alphabetical order.