forts historical ireland

Two ringforts in neighbouring fields, each with a diameter of about 100 feet and each surrounded by a bank, about 6 feet high, outside which is a ditch.
It was in the one nearest the road that the Jacobean general St. Ruth died in battle against the Williamite forces on 12 July 1691.
The defeat brought an end to the hopes of James 11, and heralded one hundred of the blackest years in Irish history....

Aughrim, just off the main road to Galway, and 8km from Ballinasloe was the scene of the Battle of Aughrim on 12th July 1691, which largely decided the outcome of the course of Irish History.

Here the Williamite forces defeated the mainly Catholic Irish and French forces under the leadership of the French General, St Ruth, who was killed in the battle. There are two ringforts situated here each with a diameter of about 100 feet and surrounded by a six foot high bank....

A Celtic hill fort, sometimes called Hacklim Cave, a low earthen mound where, according to legend, Gearoid Iarla (Garret the Earl of Kildare) and a troop of his warriors sit in an enchanted sleep....

One of many legends regarding the origins of the mound says that it is the burial place of Amergin, an early Celtic poet, but it has also been suggested that it was possibly a large passage grave like Newgrange. It was fortified as a motte by the Normans in the 12th century and a castle was later built on its summit. The fort offered Cromwell the strongest resistance he encountered during the siege of 1649, and the Governor of the town, Sir Arthur Aston, was killed here in the course of combat...

Shortly after leaving Poulawack, the road joins the Leamaneh-Ballyvaughan road. Less than 1 km north, to the left of this road, is the stone fort of Caherconnell. This is a ring fort, strongly built, and fairly well preserved....

Although ring-forts of earth and stone had their origins in pre-history, possibly in the Bronze Age, this type of enclosed settlement continued in use for a very long time and became very numerous in the early Christian period. Some, indeed, were rebuilt or extended in the Middle Ages as defensible homesteads even though by that time mortared castles and tower-houses dominated the countryside. Cahermacnaghten, 4 miles east-north-east of the spa resort of Lisdoonvarna, was occupied as late...

This beautiful park is wovan around the lake and islands of Lough Oughter. A number of marked trails range in length from 1.5km to 2.8km, each offering enchanted views and a diversity of habitat for the wild fauna.

Norway and Sitka spruce are the main tree species with a considerable amount of mixed woodland, including ash, oak, birch, sycamore, beech and alder. Stoat, badger, fox, grey squirrrel, hedgehog and rabbit are among the variety of fauna which can be spotted here.

The t...

An exceptionally interesting though sadly defaced cashel, 1 mile north-east of Kilfenora. The ring-wall encloses an oval space 150 feet by 130 feet and survives to a height of 12 feet or so. Although incomplete it shows a fair standard of building work, incorporating unusually large blocks of stone in the construction of its lower courses. An abundance of easily quarried limestone accounts for the remarkable number of stone forts in the Burren (about 500 are known in the area of 100 square mi...

The first significant hill outside Glaslough on the Emyvale road, right, is Drumbanagher Hill, site of a 10th century Viking fort, probably established as a springboard from which to attack Old Donagh Church. The opening shots of the war between James II and William III of England were fired here in 1688. William's victory in that war, which was secured at Aughrim in Galway in 1691, opened the door for the most repressive Penal Laws in 1695, which restricted the rights of Catholics to educat...

It has long been identified - though without any certainty - as the seat of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland from 1002 until his death at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Coins found in an excavation of the site certainly showed that a house had been occupied inside during the 11th century, and the Annals of the Four Masters tell us that it was raided and demolished in 1116.
The site proved to have been inhabited at two separate periods, and the house belonged to the first period of...