Ireland

Defence to domesticity: Exploring the evolution of Irish castles

Marking the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror, 2027 has been designated the Year of the Normans. Events to mark the millennium are planned all over Europe, with castles as a major theme. In Ireland, the best guide to the hundreds of defended structures surviving from the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169 is the late David Sweetman, Ireland’s former Chief Archaeologist, whose book on The Medieval Castles of Ireland reveals how these 12th- and 13th-century symbols of Anglo-Norman power evolved from earthworks to commodious towers that dominated the landscape. Chris Catling reports.

Gallarus looking towards Smerwick bay

Homage to Gallarus Oratory

Fifty years ago, one of the most daring expeditions in modern times left Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula. Tim Severin set out with a crew of three in a curragh – a skin-boat shaped like a banana – from Brandon Creek to…

Siege in Ireland

Siege in Ireland 1641-53

Between 1639 and 1653, the whole of the British Isles was engulfed by civil war. Despite popular opinion, however, it was not pitched battles that dominated the fighting, but sieges. Not for nothing did one veteran of the conflict comment:…

Crossing to Inis Cealtra

Firsts. I first went to Inis Cealtra – Holy Island in County Clare – with my first girlfriend, Leigh, in 1973. From County Antrim, a northerner, she had an esprit de vie that I always associate, like the constant drizzle,…

Chasing the Ouseley Collection

In 1920, a collection of antiquities and antiques was thrown away, and most of its contents remain lost more than a century later. Martin A Timoney describes recent efforts to piece together clues to their whereabouts and appeals for more information.

Surprising size of Brusselstown Ring revealed

Recent excavations at Brusselstown Ring, a prehistoric hillfort in County Wicklow, Ireland, have confirmed that many of the anomalies found in previous surveys of the site are roundhouse structures. With more than 600 possible examples identified across the hilltop, the…

Wildcats in Neolithic Ireland

The skeletal remains of a wildcat, found in the Burren, Co. Clare, have been radiocarbon dated to c.3600 BC, providing the first concrete evidence that this species, now-extinct in Ireland, was present during the Neolithic period. A total of 39…

Revealing Rathgurreen Ringfort

Recent excavations at Rathgurreen Ringfort, on the Maree Peninsula in County Galway, have revealed new details about the site’s history, indicating that it may have evolved from a late Bronze Age/early Iron Age monument and that, during the early medieval…

A game of tombs? Rethinking what the dead can tell us about Neolithic society in Ireland

Who was buried in the passage tombs of Neolithic Ireland? For centuries, many thought that these monuments were the final resting places of a ruling elite, and in 2020 this seemed to be confirmed by ancient DNA analysis which revealed that some of the individuals interred within them were related. Now, however, Penny Bickle, Kerri Cleary, Catherine J Frieman, Neil Carlin, Daniela Hofmann, and Jessica Smyth describe recent research that examines the results in light of their wider archaeological context, exploring complex funerary rites which, they argue, were just one form of kin-building among
a community with much wider social networks.

CWA 132 Letters

Smelly memories Please thank Chris Catling for his smelly article in CWA 129; smells and memories, it works both ways. I was reminded of a forgotten memory. Back in the late ’60s/ early ’70s, I visited Madame Tussauds (pictured): the…

Words on the wave: Tracing Continental connections in early medieval Ireland

A major new exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland explores how people travelled between early medieval Ireland and continental Europe 1,000 years ago, seeking learning, refuge from Viking raids, and religious fulfilment through self-imposed exile. Diarmuid Ó Riain, Matthew Seaver, and Maeve Sikora describe how this exchange of ideas and artistic styles is reflected in the artefacts and manuscripts on display.

Knowth

Knowth

REVIEW BY JAMES O’DRISCOLL The passage-tomb complex of Knowth is often relegated to the status of smaller sibling to the better known Newgrange, despite it being of international importance in its own right. This book summarises over 60 years of…

Death in Irish prehistory

REVIEW BY EILEEN MURPHY Exploring the mortuary record for Ireland from 8000 BC to AD 400, Death in Irish Prehistory is an inspirational book. Professor Gabriel Cooney draws on his rich experience of Irish prehistory to provide a thought-provoking and…

Discovering Medieval Ferns, Co. Wexford

REVIEW BY MARIE THERESE FLANAGAN Discovering Medieval Ferns, Co. Wexford, focuses on the town as a regional religious and royal centre in the Kingdom of Leinster during the medieval period. It provides reports on surveys and excavations at three sites.…

Forum: Comments and conundrums

Newgrange and Michael O’Kelly Re: ‘Clare Tuffy and Newgrange’, CWA 117 I had the privilege of working with Professor O’Kelly at Newgrange in 1969. The restoration was just starting, and we were excavating around the exterior of the mound. O’Kelly…

Multi-period finds at Faughan Hill

A recent publication in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society () has brought to light a major archaeological complex – spanning in date from the Neolithic to the Iron Age – on Faughan Hill in County Meath, placing it within…

Left The hermitage of St Colman Mac Duagh (AD 560 632) who spent two periods of his life as a religious recluse still survives in a forest glade with a spring at the foot of Slievecarran in the Burren National Park in County Clare. It serves as a type site for similar retreats, which typically consist of a cave and a chapel. Although located in an isolated setting, it was still within half a day’s walk of the royal court and port at Kinvara, and the monastic centre at Kilmacduagh.

Seeking seclusion: medieval hermitages in Britain and Ireland

Medieval monasteries and their communities have been (and continue to be) well studied, but not so the structures associated with those who chose a more solitary route to salvation: hermits and anchorites. Dr Simon Roffey’s new book, An Archaeological History of Hermitages and Eremitic Communities in Medieval Britain and Beyond, sets out to remedy that omission, as Chris Catling reports.

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Current Archaeology 398

• Skellig Michael: religious life at the edge of the world
• The Gloucester: a royal wreck
• King’s Lynn under siege: Civil War fortress engineering
• Reconstructing the shrine of Thomas Becket
• The Govan Stones: archaeology at the heart of a Glasgow community

Right The 1820s road and two lighthouses were the first structures to be built on the island since a permanent monastic presence ceased in the 13th century. The upper lighthouse (to the left) was decommissioned in 1870 and is now a ruin. It is linked by a meandering path to the lower lighthouse, which is now fully automated and requires only occasional maintenance visits. Both lighthouses and the adjacent accommodation for the keepers and their families were built from rock excavated to build the lighthouse road to the right of the picture.

At the edge of the world: exploring early medieval asceticism on the Skelligs

Skellig Michael – the larger of two rocky islets that lie 8 miles (13km) west of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland – was the favoured retreat of early medieval monks seeking an escape from worldly temptations. Reading the newly published Book of the Skelligs, Chris Catling gains some insights into the conditions those hermits endured and the reasons why the islands were added to the list of World Heritage Sites in 1996.