archaeological ireland

The three most spectacular buildings in Dublin - the Custom House, the Four Courts and the King's Inns - are all the work of James Gandon, an English architect who was persuaded by Lord Beresford to come to Dublin to design his new Custom House in 1781. Gandon turned down an offer to design public buildings in St Petersburg in Russia, and made his home in Ireland. The Custom House project was fiercely opposed by rival interests whose business depended on retaining the old site further inla...

A visit to the Silver River Nature Trail takes you on a journey into the remote past and provides an insight into a landscape formed by seas and rivers over 400 million years ago. There has been little disturbance to the river valley over the many intervening years and the Silver River gorge retains much of its ancient character. It is special place and one of considerable beauty and interest. The first settlers came to the area about 3000 B.C., but more recently the valley has been visited...

Dowth is the third of the great passage graves in the royal cemetery at Bru na Boinne. Similar in size to Newgrange an Knowth (85 metres in diameter and 15m in height), it has unfortunately suffered considerably more weathering and erosin than its neighbours over the years. Dowth contains two modest passages, both situated in the western part of the mound and located about 20 metres apart. The more northerly tomb is the most impressive; it is of cruciform design and off one of the side cham...

Probably an Iron Age sanctuary originally, this was later to become the inauguration place of the O'Neill chieftains of Tyrone. Here at the clan seat of O'Hagan, hereditary stewards to the O'Neills, the ceremony was conducted in the presence of the assembled under-chiefs, with the recipient installed in an ancient stone chair said to have been blessed by St. Patrick. The Great Hugh O'Neill was himself thus enthroned at Tullaghoge in 1593. That the inauguration chair, a rough construction of s...

Much botanical and archaeological research has been carried out here, see rare fly-eating plants and an internationally important pre-historic landscape emerging from under the bogs complete with magalithic tombs, field systems and ancient cooking places.

Remote & Rugged Renvyle Visit the spectacular Renvyle Peninsula and explore 5000 years of Irish History, an intriguing Bronze Age solar Calendar, one of the finest in Europe, a cliff edge Celtic Fortress and O'Flaherty Castle. See...

This place is tentatively acclaimed to have been the inauguration place of the Kings of Connacht. The site covers an area of about 2 square miles, and consists of a great number of earthworks of different kinds, varying from a large mound (possibly a Passage-tomb which, like the Mound of the Hostages at Tara, C. Meath (q.v.), is much older than the royal site) to square, round, oblong and irregularly shaped enclosures. One of these is called the Cemetery of the Kings, and there is also a 7-foo...

The Burren Centre introduces you to the unique Burren District, with models, displays and an audio-visual reveal its complexities. Visitors can explore its geology and geography, learn about the rich diversity of Burren flora and fauna and the history of man in the landscape. The presentation is available in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Spanish.

The Burren centre located in the ancient Cathedral town of Kilfenora boasts one of the greatest concentrations of high cross...

Dysert O'Dea is renowned for its wealth of historical and archelogical remains....

One of the few monuments of industrial archaeology in state care in the Republic is the complex of mills at Newmills, three miles west of Letterkenny.

It was operated for centuries by the Gallagher family until it ceased functioning in 1982. Water was siphoned off from the River Swilly for the quarter-of-a-mile long mill-race which fed two separate mills in turn. The upper mill, with much of its machinery still in place, was for flax, used in the making of linen, while the lower mil...

The 'Royal County' of Meath boasts a dramatic history and proud heritage that no other country can match. Man has settled here for over 8,000 years and everywhere one turns one can see surviving monuments and relics scattered profusely beside the rolling rivers and on the lush plains. Formerly one of the five historic provinces of Ireland, it was from here that the ancient roads of Ireland radiated, spreading Royal Meath's influence and affluence to all the corners of Ireland....