The Celtic World (Routledge Worlds)

• Ireland: A World without the Romans -

THE DORSEY COUNTY ARMAGH

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o^7 Kilometre

Figure 33.9 The Dorsey, Co. Armagh, linear earthworks. (After Lynn 1989.)

Indeed, it is, as already noted, our continued inability to recognize these settlements
which is one of the greatest obstacles to our proper understanding of the period.
A few occupation sites have been unearthed but these have not been illuminating in
our search for information on the nature of secular settlement in iron age Ireland.
Otherwise, the only possibility of pinpointing the settlements of the iron age
occupants of Ireland is, at least for the moment, offered by an examination of
fortified sites, both inland and coastal.
Because of the essentially non-defensive character of the royal sites it is not appro-
priate to refer to them as hill-forts in the strictest sense of the word. True hill-forts
are, however, known in Ireland (B. Raftery 1972, 1976) even though they are far
fewer than has sometimes been suggested in the past. Categorization of unexcavated
sites is generally hazardous in Ireland but we can take it that there are at least three
dozen sites which may be accepted into the hill-fort class. They are usually of fairly
simple character, appearing in most instances as either a single rampart, or a series of
widely spaced ramparts (Figure B.IO), encircling the summit of a hill. A few inland
promontory forts, some with closely spaced multivallation, are also known. At some
western sites the ground outside the defensive wall was protected by a band of tightly
packed upright stone pillars, a device known as chevaux-de-frise.
Outside Ireland it has been established that hill-forts were an important settlement
form of the Early Iron Age though in all areas of Europe it is clear that their origins
stretch back into the later Bronze Age. For some reason, however, there has been
a persistent tendency in Ireland to assume that the hill-fort in this country is a
phenomenon of the Iron Age.
Hillfort excavations in Ireland have not been extensive and most of the questions