TARA
3000 B.C. by a passage tomb, known today by its medi-
eval name as the “mound of the hostages.” The tomb
is oriented to the east, and alignments have been
observed with the full moon of Lughnasa (August) and
the rising sun of the festivals of Samhain (November)
and Imbolc (February). One of the side stones of the
passage is decorated with concentric circles and zig-
zags, typical of passage-tomb art. The tomb was used
for communal burial, and some 1000 pounds of cre-
mated bone were recovered, estimated as representing
about 200 people. The artifacts included passage-tomb
pottery, decorated stone pendants, stone balls, and
mushroom-headed bone pins, the latter two of which
are thought to have a fertility significance. Aligned
onto the mound of the hostages is a linear earthwork
known by its medieval name as Te chMidchúarta (ban-
queting hall). It is unexcavated, but it is thought to be
a ceremonial avenue or cursus of Neolithic date,
although some scholars have expressed the view that
it may belong to the Iron Age modifications of the hill.
Some forty burials of Early/Middle Bronze Age date
(c.2400–1400B.C.) were inserted into the mound of
the hostages, showing that it remained an important
monument, while dozens of small barrows (earthen
burial mounds) were also erected across the ridge at
this time. Little is known about the burial customs of
the Late Bronze Age, but Tara evidently remained a
sacred site, as is shown by the discovery there of two
great gold torcs dating to around 1200 B.C., which were
deposited as a votive offering.
During the first century B.C., the hilltop was rear-
ranged and the summit was enclosed by a great ditch
with an external rampart. This monument is known by
its medieval name as Ráith na Ríg(fort of the kings).
In fact it was not a fort, but rather a ritual enclosure
that included within it the mound of the hostages as
well as the ForradandTe chCormaic. The Forradis
a flat-topped mound, enclosed by two banks and
ditches, built over earlier Bronze Age barrows, and
which probably played a role in inauguration rituals.
A granite pillar in the centre of the Forrad is supposed
to be the Lia Fáil (stone of destiny); its phallic shape
indicates that it is a fertility symbol. This accords well
with one of the traditional attributes of kingship and
with the inauguration ceremony, with which it was
linked according to medieval lore. In medieval Irish
mythology Tara was connected with the god Lug, who
was the divine manifestation of kingship, and with the
goddess Medb, the embodiment of fertility.
Te chCormaicis a ringfort adjoining the Forradthat
may have been inhabited in the early middle ages.
Definite evidence of habitation on the hill during the
early centuries A.D. was uncovered when the ringfort
known as the Rath of the Synods was excavated. This
revealed four major phases of activity, during which
the use of the site changed from a cemetery to a cer-
emonial enclosure, then back to a cemetery before
finally becoming a ringfort. Several of the finds were
high-status, imported objects from Roman Britain, dat-
ing mainly from the second to the fourth centuries A.D.
There are no descriptions of actual inaugurations at
Tara, and it is thought that the Feis Temro(assembly
at Tara) was a celebration held at the height of a king’s
reign. The last assembly was held by Diarmait mac
Cerbaill in 558/560, and celebration of the event
seems to have declined as conversion to Christianity
increased. When Tara is mentioned by Muirchú around
680, it was already an abandoned, legendary place—
thecaput Scottorum (capital of the Irish) associated
with a powerful pre-Christian kingship. From the sev-
enth century onward, medieval historians developed
the theme of Tara as the seat of the high kings of
Ireland, a concept that was intimately connected to the
contemporary ambitions of the Uí Néill and that pro-
vided them with the legitimacy of tradition, albeit an
invented one. The title of rí Temrach(king of Tara)
was applied to an over king, although from the time
of Máel-Sechnaill I it was gradually replaced by that of
rí Érenn (king of Ireland). In 980, Tara was thesetting
for an important battle in which Máel-Sechnaill II
defeated the Scandinavians of Dublin, and it was dur-
ing his reign that the Dinnsenchas Érennwas com-
piled. Tara comes first in the account, and the detailed
description of the hill is effectively a survey of the
earthworks that were visible at the time.
After the coming of the Anglo-Normans Tara fell
into the hands of the de Repentini family, and a church
is first mentioned there in 1212, when it belonged to
the House of the Knights Hospitallers at Kilmainham.
It functioned as a parish church until the sixteenth
century, when it fell into disrepair. The iconic status
enjoyed by Tara in recent centuries rests largely on the
literary skill of Geoffrey Keating’s ForasFeasa ar
Éirinn(writtenc. 1634–1636), in which he formulated
and popularized the idea of Tara functioning continu-
ously as a national institution from prehistoric times
into the middle ages.
JOHN BRADLEYReferences and Further Reading
Bhreathnach, Edel. Ta r a, a Select Bibliography. Dublin: The
Discovery Programme, 1995.
Bhreathnach, Edel, and Conor Newman. Ta r a. Dublin: The Sta-
tionery Office, 1995.
Newman, Conor. Ta r a, an Archaeological Survey. Dublin: The
Discovery Programme, 1997.
Roche, Helen. “Excavations at Ráith na Ríg, Tara, Co. Meath,
1997.” Discovery Programme Reports 6 (2002): 19–165.