William O'Brien

Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, has been the site of several years of research into an extraordinary complex of prehistoric hillforts. In this work, Professor William O'Brien of University College Cork brings that research into the public arena.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1872.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1872.

Ringforts were an important part of the rural settlement landscape of early medieval Ireland (AD 400–1100). While most of those circular enclosures were farmsteads, a small number had special significance as centres of political power and elite residence, also associated with specialized crafts. One such ‘royal site’ was Garranes in the mid-Cork region of south-west Ireland. In 1937, archaeological excavation of a large trivallate ringfort provided evidence of high-status residence during the fifth and sixth centuries AD. The site had workshops for the production of bronze ornaments, with glass and enamel working as well as indications of farming. Pottery and glass vessels imported from the Mediterranean world and Atlantic France were also discovered. That trade with the Late Roman world is significant to understanding the introduction of Christianity and literacy in southern Ireland at that time. This monograph presents the results of an interdisciplinary project conducted 2011–18, where archaeological survey and excavation, supported by various specialist studies, examined this historic landscape. Garranes is a special place where archaeology, history and legend combine to uncover a minor royal site of the early medieval period. The central ringfort has been identified as Rath Raithleann, the seat of the petty kingdom of Uí Echach Muman, recalled in bardic poetry of the later medieval period. Those poems attribute its foundation to Corc, a King of Munster in the fifth century AD, and link the site closely to Cian, son-in-law of Brian Bóruma, and one of the heroes of Clontarf (AD 1014). This study provides new evidence to connect the location of Rath Raithleann to high-status occupation at Garranes during the fifth and sixth centuries, and explores its legendary associations in later periods.

The later part of the Bronze Age (1500-700 BC) was a time of settlement expansion and economic prosperity in Ireland. This was a landscape of small autonomous farming communities, but there is also evidence for control of territory and population, involving centralized organization of trade and economy, ritual and military force. That concentration of power was connected to the emergence of chiefdom polities active in the consolidation of large regional territories. Their competitive tendencies led on occasion to conflict and warfare, at a time of growing militarism evident in the mass production of bronze weaponry, including the first use of swords. Hillforts are another manifestation of a warrior culture that emerged not only in Ireland but across Europe during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. They were centers for high-status residence, ceremony and assembly, and represented an important visual display of power in the landscape. This is the first project to study hillforts in relation to warfare and conflict in Bronze Age Ireland. New evidence for the destruction of hillforts is connected to territorial disputes and other forms of competition arising from the ambitions of regional warlords, often with catastrophic consequences for individual communities. This project combines remote sensing and GIS-based landscape analysis with conventional archaeological survey and excavation, to investigate ten prehistoric hillforts across southern Ireland. These include a cluster of nine examples at Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow, often termed ‘Ireland’s hillfort capital’. The results provide new insights into the design and construction of these immense sites, as well as details of their occupation and abandonment. The chronology of Irish hillforts is reviewed, with a new understanding of origins and development. The project provides a challenging insight into the relationship of hillforts to warfare, social complexity and the political climate of late prehistoric Ireland.

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