The Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland began in May 1169 when a force of some 500 knights, men at arms, archers, and foot soldiers landed near Bannow Bay in County Wexford. After two days, they captured Wexford, with the loss of 18 Norman lives and those of three defenders. By comparison with the more violent and deadly battles of the period, the Norman cavalry and archers achieved an easy victory over an Irish defence force armed only with slings and spears. Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), whose Expugnatio Hibernica, or The Conquest of Ireland, completed in 1189, is an important source for the history of the invasion, tells us that the Irish relied on their natural surroundings – bogs and woods – as places of refuge and protection from marauding forces.
By contrast, the invaders built earthwork and timber fortifications to consolidate their conquests as they headed west to seize Waterford and north to take Dublin, reinforced by the army of the Earl of Pembroke, Richard ‘Strongbow’ de Clare. Known as ‘ringworks’, these roughly circular defensive structures consisted of a deep ditch and high bank reinforced with a timber palisade. The living quarters, kitchens, stores, and animal pens were all located within this protective circuit, though some ringworks had a small outer bailey for workshops, stables, and animal byres. In effect, ringworks were like a motte-and-bailey castle but without the raised mound or timber keep.
Ringworks, wrote David Sweetman in his history of Irish castles (see ‘Further reading’ below), are difficult to find, date, and classify because they are so similar to other types of site across Ireland, which range in date from prehistoric to medieval – in particular the similarly named ringfort (ráth in Irish). These defended farmsteads, of which there are more than 40,000 examples, are the most common form of prehistoric monument in Ireland, with density of just over one ringfort for every 200 hectares (0.8 square miles).
Protected places and prehistoric pints