Triskelle - Irish history: Bronze Age

Around 2500 BCE a group of highly skilled metal workers and crafty salesmen appeared in Spain. These so-called Bell Beakers, named after their bell-shaped pottery, spread over Europe and by 2000 BCE they have travelled as far as the Czech Republic, Northern Africa and Scotland. To keep the historical perspective: the Bell Beakers are considered to have built the Stonehenge monument.
Although there is no evidence of Bell Beaker settlements or activities on Ireland it is likely that there has been contact and perhaps trade between the Bronze Age Bell Beakers in Scotland and the Neolithic farmers on Ireland.

The probable contacts between the Bronze Age metal workers in Scotland and the Stone Age farmers on Ireland makes it hard to fix the start of the Bronze Age on Ireland. Simply dating a bronze object is not enough, as this doesn't proof that the people were actually capable of producing it. The presence of copper mines in Munster also does not proof metal working skills because the ore might have been used as commodity and not as raw material. As a result there are several dates circulating in the literature, but it seems safe to fixed the Bronze Age in Ireland somewhere between 2500 BCE until 300 BCE.
Once the Irish knew how to mine ore, and how to manufacture and process copper and bronze, the metal industry flourished. Excavations reveal mining and industrial activities in Munster, especially in County Cork, were several mineshafts and traces of ancient industrial waste are found on Mount Gabriel.

The new materials provided better tools. Using bronze axes it was possible to clear the more dense forests in the valleys. By doing so they created the Irish landscape as it is today: the less densely forested country in Europe. It is believed that the bare moon-like landscape of The Burren in County Clare is the result of this deforestation.

The primitive farming community was too enthusiast and too unknowing to keep up the high standard of living. Overgrazing and failure to manure the soil properly led to a collapsing economy and famine.
In the meantime the Irish climate changed from a warm Mediterranean climate to the modern Irish climate. As already mentioned in the New Stone Age this climate change probably caused the fixation of these humans on the cycles of the earth, sun and moon, which could explain the alignment of many megalithic monuments with solstices and with specific sunsets and sunrises. Maybe the structures were intended to sympathise their deities. If so, they failed at least once during a period of 18 years in the twelfth century BCE when there was, according to pollen-studies, no growth at all.

Stone Circles and Standing Stones

The Bronze Age folks refined the tomb building tradition started by their Neolithic ancestors by creating wedge tombs and the perfectly aligned passage tombs.
In addition the people of Bronze Age Ireland turned in a whole new, and even more enigmatic, avenue. Stone circles, but also rows of stones, so-called stone alignments, appeared about simultaneously with, and more then often in the close proximity of, wedge tombs. Scattered over Ireland, but concentrated in the counties Cork and Kerry and in the province of Ulster, are about 200 undisputed stone circles and alignments. The northern stone circles, in general larger than the southern variety, are by far not as extensive as their counterparts on Britain. In fact the Irish stone circles are quite small and mostly highly inconspicuous. Probably because they don't stand out several stone circles are damaged and recycled in land boundaries and houses. Nevertheless they are worthwhile your attention just because they blend in with their environment and are often located in a very nice scenery.

Just as is the case with the tombs some sort of worldly or spiritual ceremonial purpose seems obvious, but frankly we've no idea why people took the effort to create them. The mere lofty kind of New Age zealots are able to observe an array of low-quality alignments with insignificant constellations or nearby mountains, but we think it would be quite an achievement not to find such banal relations in any given collection of ten randomly erected stones. Meaningful high-quality alignments with solstices and other crucial astronomical events are extremely rare. And even if an alignment was apparently intended the engineers often failed by a few millimetres. The major alignment of the Drombeg Stone Circle in County Cork with the winter solstices for example is only slightly off-target.
With imagination one might consider stone circles as attempts to get a grip on the movements of the earth and therewith as a necessary leg up to the complicated passage tombs. Considered from a down-to-earth perspective on the other hand a stone circle is merely a line of demarcation defining a field probably used for ceremonial rites.

Standing stones, also known as menhirs and - rarely - as cloch fháda, are also cryptic Bronze Age phenomenons. The first question emerging when facing a standing stone is whether or not that specific stone was intended to a standing stones. Examples of standing stones that were once part of a tomb, stone circle or stone row are legion. On the other hand there are plenty of examples of intentionally solitaire erected standing stones, often in the immediate vicinity of a tomb or stone circle.
The purpose of standing stones is shrouded in mist and about every suggestion with sense of reality is well within the bounds of possibility. But to temper grandiloquent sentiments we must put forward that the engravings often applied to standing stones date from the Iron Age or the early Christian era. For all we know standing stones might have served a worldly function for the Bronze Age folks, such as a landmark.

Fortifications

The transition from hunter-gathers to farmers during in the New Stone Age had a devastating effect on the nomadic lifestyle. People disposed of their transportable tents because there was no longer any need to move back and forth to summer and winter camps. Instead they lived in wooden huts close to their cattle and crops. Apart from a fencing or palisade, mainly erected to keep the cattle in at night, these settlements barely meet the definition of fortifications. In the course of the Bronze Age however defensive works started to appear in the Irish landscape. It would be a bit naïve to think that the pre-Bronze Age society lacked violence or warfare, but apparently there was no need to ward off this threat by building fortifications. There is no conclusive answer to the question what frightened the early Irish to such extent that they put aside resources and manpower to stand up against it. In general however it seems plausible that increasing wealth, accompanied with more complex rules of ownership and succession, contributed to the rise of envy and greed, whereas improved weaponry induced stronger defences. The effect of the climate change and the population growth on the rise of defensive works is uncertain, but it's quite conceivable that both aspects led to a shortage of fertile land and through that to land wars.

Basically there are two methods by which early Irish defensive works are classified. The most cushy grouping distinct fortifications by topography, which results in four groups: lake dwellings, promontory forts, hill forts and ring forts. This grouping is foolproof and therefore very popular in travel guides and brochures, but is absolutely meaningless. Firstly lake dwellings aren't necessarily fortresses. Secondly all hill forts, apart from some very rare exceptions, are ring forts. And, last but not least, the term ring fort is a repository for strongholds not built on cliff edges and hill tops. The major flaw of this classification though is its lack of information about the occupants, the construction, and the utilisation, nor the historical context, of the fortress.

Historians tend to base the classification of fortifications on characteristics of the structure itself. In theory this grouping consists of four main classes: the artificial island, or crannóg, the ráth with its earthen embankment, the cashel with its stone enclosure and the prestigious dún. These classes are well-defined and provided with labels containing unmistakable information about the builders, the materials, the purpose and even some sort of chronological order.
So far the theory. In the field the historians, as well as laymen, stumble upon sites with a history of habituation that extends over centuries, if not millennia, during which the initial farmstead has evolved into heavily fortified strongholds or even entire towns. That is if they are that lucky. Most sites have been ransacked by locals looking for cheap building materials or levelled by farmers to get rid of those unwieldy humps in their farmland. An other surprising hazard are the nineteenth and early twentieth century colleagues of the modern historians whose imagination was also stirred by the mysterious and legendary forts. Guided by a romantic heart rather then by a scientific mind they have skilfully ruined many sites by carrying out "restoration works".

Crannóg

Probably since time immemorial people have sought refuge on islands in lakes and marshes. At first sight the Irish lakes are abundant with islands, but there's a drawback to natural islands. Their irregular surface and fanciful outline aside, most natural islands are either too small to accommodate a family with livestock and provisions, or too big as a result of which the shelter becomes a trap. The obvious solution was to build islands tailored to the requirements of occupants. Such man-made, artificial, islands are known as crannógs.

The prototype of the crannóg appeared on the British Isles, and especially in Scotland, about 5000 years ago in the form of a circular or oval platform supported by stilts driven in the floor of the lake. The name crannóg, derived from crann, meaning tree, is probably taken from these stilts. Typically the crannóg was connected to the shore by a gangway and completed by a roundhouse. In time the initial crannóg was often enlarged to accommodate an extended family. In general these early crannógs lacked defensive structures and, although they offered some protection to intruders, it is likely that they were mainly objects of prestige.
As the lake dwelling expanded and heavier defences were needed the early method of construction reached its structural limits and the next logical step in the development of crannógs was to fill up a sheet piling of tree trunks with rocks, earth or whatever was at hand. The resulting foundation was strong enough to support several wooden huts, granaries and basic defensive works such as a palisade and watchtower. A minor adjustment to the connection with the shore also reveals the defensive purpose of these crannógs as the elevated, eye-catching, bridge-like gangway was replaced by a simple gangway preferably positioned slightly beneath the water surface to hide it for assailants. In the course of time the sheet piling weakened and eventually gave way to the weight of the infill and the structures built on the artificial island, causing the crannóg to collapse. Consequently most of these crannógs are nowadays submerged. Luckily several historic parks, such as the Craggaunowen Project in County Clare, have reconstructed a crannóg with sheet piling.
The third, and most sophisticated method, made use of stone weighted mattings of twigs and branches. Because the sturdy foundation proofed able to sustain the extra weight of stone houses crannógs evolved from temporary shelters into permanent dwellings some of which remained in use until mediaeval times. Unless built over with stone structures many of these more durable crannógs are nowadays covered with trees. A nice touch however is that, although the twigs are replaced by a wire mesh, modern Irish engineers have adopted the underlying idea in the construction of jetty's and embankments.

Strictly speaking the term crannóg refers to the artificial island itself and not to the structures built on it. Therefore a crannóg isn't necessarily a fortress.

Ráth

The most uncomplicated fortification is commonly known as ráth, which can be translated as earth or - slightly imaginative - earth work. A case example of a ráth, also known as lis, brugh, múr or moat, consisted of a ditch and a circular earthen embankment topped with a stockade or a thick hedgerow. Depending on the availability of water the ditch might or might not have been flooded. A simple gap in the embankment and a bridge over the trench provided access to the dwelling. Larger ráths were surrounded by three or more embankments. The Moat of Kilfinnane in County Limerick really stands out in this aspect with no less than seven circumvallations. The slightly elevated inner court of a standard ráth provided ample room for up to four simple wooden huts. A large flattened mound, accommodating the hut of the head of the household, was occasionally put up inside the enclosure. There are ráths in different sizes from 15 metres up to 100 metres.

Several historians and archaeologists have racked their educated brains over the purpose of ráths. Their main concern is the intensive use of these sites most of which date back to the New Stone Age and were in use some way or the other until the fourteenth century. Consequently the remaining locations are severely disturbed. Nevertheless the authorities have worked out a scientific compromise.
It is thought that ráths initially functioned as farmsteads instead of defensive works. The lack of other defensive features than a trench and embankment led to the notion that the embankment wasn't primarily meant to keep miscreants out, but to keep the cattle in. Structures such as Navan Fort in County Armagh, where a ditch is located inside the inner enclosure, and Tullyhogue Fort in County Tyrone seem to support this notion.
A small minority of authors assumes that ráths were deliberately built for ceremonial purposes. There's however no evidence, not even the smallest hint, to support this supposition. It's crystal-clear though that several ráths, with the Hill of Tara beating the lot, evolved into royal or spiritual ceremonial sites in the course of time. Analogous to the megalithic monuments it's almost as if early ráths were rediscovered by the Celts after years of neglect and attributed with spiritual powers. Even today sites as Tullyhogue Fort, and the Hill of Tara on a quite off-season day, exude an indescribable atmosphere of serenity for the even slightly receptive visitor and tales about faeries only contribute to the exalted experience.

Cashel

In the Bronze Age the fortifications threw off their farmstead appearances when earthworks were gradually replaced by stone constructions. After a transitional period, during which stones were embedded in the earthen embankment to strengthen the enclosure, the people entrusted their lives to a dry wall. Real nit-pickers make a distinction between cahers with a thick wall usually made of smaller boulders and cashels, or caiseals, with a narrow wall of stacked slabs. In spite of the fact that the term cashel, derived from the Latin castellum, is often mistranslated as castle we will confine ourselves to this more current term.
Apart from the building material a cashel distinct from a ráth by its useful and well thought-out defensive features. Without stockade the top of the wall provided sufficient elbowroom to harass attackers with rocks or to hit out with clubs, swords and axes. The narrow entrance to the inner court allowed only one man at the time to pass while a high threshold, the proverbial stumbling block, not only forced him to bend over, but hopefully also caused a spill. If against all odds the enemy managed to enter the cashel the defenders took position on the terraces constructed on the inside of the stone enclosure.
Doon Fort, built on a hefty crannóg by the way, and Grianan Ailligh, or Grianan of Aileach, both in County Donegal, are both text book examples of such utterly straight forward cashels. The basic cashel design proofed extremely successful. Grianan Ailligh for example remained one of the many strongholds of the O'Neills until the twelfth century and, although built in the ninth century, Leacanabuaile Stone Fort near Cahirciveen in County Kerry deviates only on minute details from the Bronze Age cashels.

Subterranean rooms, known as souterrains, are common structures to find in all types of fortresses and unfortified dwellings. Nevertheless the phenomenon is often associated with cashels, and notably with cahers, because these fortifications provided the best circumstances for preservation. Souterrains found in ráths were just holes in the ground, whereas those found in cashels consisted of a a gap in the wall which led to a narrow passageway and eventually to a underground room shored up with corbelled stones. Souterrains might have served as storage, treasury and, in turbulent times, as shelter for women and children.

Dún

The last group of ancient Irish fortifications is known as dún. Initially this term referred to an intermediate form between cashels and castles, but nowadays the term covers prestigious defensive works, mostly occupied by a royal household, without regard to the year of construction. Due to this rather capacious definition the noun dún is often wrongfully used as generic term for Irish fortifications. The keyword in the definition however is prestigious. Only a moat and an embankment, regardless whether the dún was inhabited by a king, wasn't enough. Instead the highly placed residents of a dún were protected by the latest security features they could afford. Maybe not particular because they really needed that much protection, but merely to show off their wealth.
Contrary to common knowledge a dún isn't necessarily an extravagant cashel. A solidly constructed ráth also might be qualified as dún.

The first surviving fortifications deservedly of the title dún appeared at the end of the Bronze Age and peaked during the Iron Age, when overseas trading and immigration brought a whole new range of defensive features from Great Britain and the European mainland.
Probably the most characteristic feature of a dún is its division in at least two security sections, from which the most heavily fortified section obviously accommodated the chief or king. At first this inner stronghold was little more than a fort in a fort, but about 500 CE the stronghold was very similar to the donjon, a circular keep, of early Anglo-Norman motte and bailey castles. In fact the ground plan of Dundrum Castle in County Down perfectly fits the layout of the earlier dún.
The vitrified wall, strictly speaking not a feature but a treatment given to the enclosure, most likely originates from current Scotland. For a long time it was thought that one needed an extreme heat to induce vitrification and that people in those days just weren't able to create nor maintain such fires in a controllable manner over a prolonged period of time. Shortly after the phenomenon was discovered at the end of the nineteenth century the scientists sought high and low for nearby volcanoes (just to give you an idea of the then state of science). According to recent research the nineteenth century scientists overestimated the temperatures needed to melt stone. Depending on the composition and size of the stone the vitrification process needs some 1000 degrees Celsius instead of several thousand degrees. And that temperature was well within the possibilities of the Iron Age human because the average iron kiln had to be able to reach a temperatures of 1150 degrees to extract iron from ore (yes, you're right, pure iron melts at slightly higher temperatures, but the melting point was lowered by adding carbon to the ore ... so there!). Once established that the Iron Age humans were capable to reach the temperatures needed to vitrify stones the question remained whether the walls were intentionally strengthened by vitrification or more or less accidental as a result of arson. The presence of potash and soda, both materials known for their melting point lowering quality, and the fact that only the exposed and most vulnerable parts of the wall were vitrified as well as the notion that the builders went to great lengths to gather fusible rocks are all considered circumstantial evidence for a deliberate design. Nevertheless its still uncertain how the Iron Age humans transferred the heat from the fire to the wall. Possibly they used cunningly designed huge clay kilns, which obviously are all destroyed without leaving a trace after their job was done. To be honest there are only two partially vitrified fortresses in Ireland, namely in the counties Cavan and Derry, but it would be a shame to withhold you the nice story about melting stones.
An other feature, which not only illustrates close relations with the Iberian Peninsula, but also indicates a revolt in warfare, is best seen at Dún Aonghasa on Inishmore just off the shore of County Galway. The land side of this promontory fort is defended by a broad band of upright and slightly tilted stones, a so-called chevaux de frise. Although there are some other examples of a similar feature on the British Isles it is thought that the idea originates from the Iberian Peninsula. It might seem strange to obstruct your way of vision by erecting large stones in front of your fortress, until you realise that only small gangs of assailants will take advantage of the provided shields and hiding places. Larger gangs however will take advantage of cleared grounds and storm your fortress head-on. Obstructions, such as a chevaux de frise, break the enemy's ranks, cause chaos and eventually delay the enemy's approach.


	Last modified: 17-12-2007. Copyright by Vincent J. Peters.
	Content: ireland - irish - eire - history - ancient - bronze age - stone circles - standing stones