A geophysical survey carried out in the grounds of Crookston Castle, with the aim of learning more about the Glasgow site’s medieval and post medieval history, has unexpectedly revealed the remains of a late prehistoric settlement, including the footprints of…
In the year AD 580, St Aidan crossed the Irish Sea from St Davids in Pembrokeshire (where he had been studying as St David’s favourite pupil) to Rosslare in County Wexford. Eighteen years later, he established a new monastery at Ferns, in the same county. This grew to become one of south-east Ireland’s most important settlements, a seat of royal power and the site of an Augustinian abbey. Little was known about the early history, however, until the Irish Archaeology Field School launched a major research project in June 2021. With commendable speed, the first fruits of that research have just been published, as Chris Catling reports.
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.…
Review by Michael Potterton Thirty years ago, when I was a history and archaeology undergraduate at University College Dublin, the phrase ‘Ireland and the Crusades’ seemed almost as absurd as ‘Ireland and the Palaeolithic’ or ‘Ireland and the Renaissance’. Times…