PROMONTORY FORTS
engagement with the sea and maritime activity for their
occupants. Many of them incorporate the Irish word
dún(fort) in their name. Over 350 promontory forts
have been identified on the Irish coast of which just
nine have been the subject of archaeological excava-
tion. The first scientific excavation of a promontory
fort was carried out at Larribane, County Antrim in
1936 with a subsequent season of excavation in 1962.
This was followed by excavations at Dunbalor on Tory
Island, County Donegal in 1949, at Dalkey Island,
County Dublin between 1956 and 1959 and by three
excavations at the promontory forts of Carrigillihy,
Dooneendermotmore, and Portadoona, County Cork
in 1952. Dunbeg, County Kerry was excavated in 1981
and Doonagappul and Doonamo, County Mayo in
- Much of what is known about promontory forts
is based on the pioneering work of Thomas Johnson
Westropp who, between 1898 and 1922, visited and
recorded 195 sites primarily in the west and southwest
of Ireland and published twenty papers dealing with
his findings. As late as the end of the twentieth century
archaeologists tended to classify promontory forts as
a sub-class of the less numerous inland hillforts.
Promontory forts are attributed various functions.
Among the suggestions are that they may have been
used as landing places for seagoing invaders and tem-
porary refuges during inland attack. They have also
been proposed as trading bases, ceremonial enclosures,
observation posts, and livestock pounds. In several
cases the interiors of promontory forts show no visible
sign of occupation, which favors the idea that some
may have served as temporary refuges.
Although there are, as yet, no firm dates for the
construction of this monument type, archaeologists
have tended to view promontory forts as primarily Iron
Age in origin. However, evidence from excavations,
Tudor maps, historical documents, and upstanding
structures within promontory forts clearly indicate that
occupation also took place within some of them in the
early (fifth century to c. 1100) and later (c. 1100 to
c. 1600) medieval periods. Three of the nine promontory
forts scientifically excavated have produced substantial
evidence of medieval occupation. Barry’s excavation at
Dunbeg, County Kerry revealed that the first phase of
occupation provided a radiocarbon date spanning the
period from the end of the ninth century to the late sixth
centuryB.C.E. However, a radiocarbon date from the
innermost ditch of the promontory fort ranged from the
late seventh to the early eleventh centuries C.E. proving
that the fort was in use in the early medieval period. In
addition, an early medieval souterrain ran outward from
the entrance to the fort, and the earlier of two occupation
layers within a large clochánor circular stone hut in the
interior of the fort was dateable to the period from the
late ninth century to the mid-thirteenth century C.E.
Childe’s excavation at Larribane, County Antrim and
subsequent excavations there by Proudfoot and Wilson
suggested that the fort had been built and occupied
around 800 C.E. No evidence was produced however,
to prove that the occupation of the headland coincided
with the actual construction of the stone wall and exter-
nal ditch that defended the landward side of the site.
Liversages excavations on Dalkey Island, County Dublin
demonstrated that a midden, datable to the fifth or sixth
centuryC.E. on the basis of imported pottery found
within it, represented the first early medieval occupa-
tion of the promontory before it was actually fortified.
A second phase of occupation in the seventh century,
constituting a hearth, a midden, and a possible house
site, which postdated the construction of the rampart
of the promontory fort, was identified in the interior of
the fort. Apart from the evidence for early medieval
activity found during scientific excavations, the Irish
chronicles also allude to the occupation of some prom-
ontory forts during the Viking Age. For instance, Dun-
severick, County Antrim was the target of a Viking raid
in the ninth century, which suggests that it was a sub-
stantial settlement of some wealth in that period.
Several promontory forts enjoyed periods of occu-
pation in later medieval times. In the late twelfth and
early thirteenth centuries Anglo-Norman colonizers
saw the immediate advantages of adopting and enhanc-
ing promontory forts that had previously been used as
strongholds by Gaelic lords. Dun Contreathain or Don-
aghintraine on the Atlantic coastline of County Sligo
is, for instance, mentioned in the Irish chronicles as a
base for the activities of the Anglo-Norman magnate,
de Bermingham, in 1249. By 1297 the de Bermingham
family had built themselves a manorial hall house
within a promontory fort at Castleconnor, overlooking
the estuary of the River Moy in County Mayo. At the
commencement of the Anglo-Norman colonisation of
Ireland, the Anglo-Norman knight, Raymond le Gros,
greatly augmented the defences of an existing prom-
ontory fort called Dundonuil at Baginbun, County
Wexford in order to secure an initial base for his army
in May 1170 and for that which followed under the
command of Strongbow in August of that year.
The results of O’Kelly’s excavation at Dooneender-
motmore, County Cork perhaps best exemplifies the
enduring nature of the promontory fort as a form of
defended settlement. The defences of the fort were
constructed in two phases. No date was confirmed for
the first phase but the rock-cut ditch was modified
during the later medieval period and crossed by means
of a drawbridge. The parapet wall of the fort and a
large two-roomed house site in the interior were also
constructed in that period. In fact, no occupation levels
earlier than the sixteenth century were identified dur-
ing excavation.