forts historical ireland

Located on the beautiful Ring of Kerry is Staigue Fort. It is not known for what the fort was used but Staigue Fort represents a considerable feat in engineering and construction. It was built without the use of mortar, using just stones placed at a slight angle, lower on the outside than the inside to allow water to run off.

Most famous of the great circular stone cashels, Staigue is also one of the best preserved and conveys a fair idea of how the larger Iron Age fortifications...

The most celebrated and dramatic site in the county. It was purchased by the state from the estate of Lord Congleton about four years ago, and taken into its care and protection. Its name is from Dun Masg "the fort of Masg". An important fortress before the Normans, it was granted to Strongbow in 1170 by Diarmait Mac Murchada as part of his daughter Aoife's dowry, and became the Normans' most important fortification. Wiliam Earl Marshall, the most famous and honourable Norman, lived he...

The Redoubt on Windmill hill, site of a 17th century star-shaped artillery fort. The moat, rampart walls and the remains of a swivel gun are still visible. Superb panorama of Enniskillen, the River Erne and Portora Royal School from the rampart....

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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....

Just to the west of the city of Armagh lies Navan, once known as Ema. Dynamic audio-visual techniques, narration, interactive devices and even the design of the building itself are all employed to bring the area's archaelogy and mystery to life....

This is a circular fort, repaired before 1860, with a stone wall 95 feet in diameter.
It is entered at the north-east through a narrow entrance with a small sentry chamber on the right. Just to the left of the entrance is a stone with a cross inscribed on it.

In the interior of the fort are the foundations of a square building, at one corner of which is the entrance to a souterrain.
outside the entrance of the fort is a large boulder with cup-marks....

The length of trail is 8km (5 miles). The actual walking will take you 2 - 2.5 hours, but there is a lot to see on the Trail, so you should allow 4 - 5 hours if you are to enjoy it fully.

The route is marked by yellow arrows on limestone plaques, with an occasional - walking man - symbol. There are stiles wherever you need to cross a wall....

An earthen ringfort with concentric bank and ditch, with the remains of a monumental flat-headed stone doorway of A.D. C. 1000 on the eastern side....

Access by foot via a forestry car park signposted to the left off the N18 road between Newmarket-on-fergus and Dromoland. The famous iron age ring fort of Mooghaun, 'one of our most remarkable antiquities. It has three great stone walls of which the outermost, oval in outline, measures 450 m x 30 m' - O Riordain, 1942. It enclosed 18 hectares....