Athlunkard

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Athlunkard ( Irish Áth Longfoirt ) is a northeastern suburb of Limerick in County Clare not far from the Shannon in Ireland , near which there was an early Viking settlement. Athlunkard, together with the “Shannon Banks” riverside settlement, forms a suburb of Limerick made up of modern terraced houses that were built in the 1960s to 1990s and extend on both sides of the main street and the right bank of the river.

Surname

The name Athlunkard refers to a ford ( Irish áth ) and a pier (lunkard = longphort), as it is used for temporary Viking camps . The camp is indicated by earth movements opposite the island in the Shannon arc. Other Irish places are considered to be long-haunted - e.g. B. Dunrally Fort (or Longphort -Rothlaibh, destroyed in 862) in County Laois , Linn Duachaill near Annagassan in County Louth and Woodstown near Waterford .

Attractions

  • The stone Athlunkard Bridge crosses the River Shannon and connects the town with Limerick city center, 5 kilometers away, via Corbally Road.
  • The Shannon Scheme is a run-of-river power plant and is located about 2.5 kilometers north of a tributary of the Shannon.

Viking settlement of Athlunkard

location

This place is located opposite St-Thomas Island on a meadow near Fairy Hill (coordinate: 52 ° 41'27 "N - 8 ° 36'51" W) .

description

The D-shaped storage area is 75 m long, 30 m wide and surrounded by a curved wall. It is at a low level, on a tributary of the Shannon. Behind the wall there is a swamp on the land side. Inside the square, a raised oval area measuring 20 by 12.5 m is protected by a wall and moat. The earthwork is believed to be the remainder of a Viking winter settlement founded between 840 and 930 AD. A so-called Lax-Weir (Lax is the Nordic name for salmon - in Irish it would be Salmon) below the island, which has retained the Nordic word, is evidence of a Scandinavian presence in this region.

background

The Vikings raided the Shannon in the mid-9th century. They paved a place at the bleak spot - the translated place name for Limerick - and roamed the interior of the country in search of prey. Turgesius (also known as Turgeis, Thorgest or Thorgils) is a real, but historically hardly comprehensible figure from the early Viking Age in Ireland. His advance on the Shannon and his attack on the monastery of Clonmacnoise in 842 as well as on the nearby monasteries of Clonfert (Cluain Fearta of Breanainn), Terryglas (Tir da Ghlas and Lorrha ) are notorious . According to Geoffrey Keating , he founded a dun on an island in Lough Ree (Loch Rihb) near Athlone . The Viking base on Lough Ree was established in 845. The Athlunkard longphort may come from the time of these campaigns. In response to the constant threat, the Irish King Brian Boru attacked the Viking camps and secured the country.

The importance of the Longphort of Athlunkard lies in the fact that apart from it only two places are known which presumably had a similar function: Dunrally in County Laois (the destruction of a Longphort-Rothlaibh is mentioned in the annals in 862 and has been identified as Dunrally) and Anagassan in County Louth . But none has a special connection with the Vikings, except for a Scandinavian presence in the region. Michael Gibbons points out that there has been no study of a Viking longphort and suggests the definition of “military terrain of some nature, likely from the Viking Age or later”, the duration of which is uncertain. He has therefore argued that it is unwise to use the word as an archaeological term.

Other Irish places are considered as so-called longphorts (Irish longphoirt) are Linn Duachaill near Annagassan in County Louth and Woodstown near Waterford.

Finds

Iron objects from the 10th century, a ploughshare, a spearhead , a spear piece and a small ring were found on the site. A silver weight was found on the opposite bank of the river .

literature

  • P. Eamonn & E. O'Donovan: Athlunkard, Co. Clare In: Archeology in Ireland, vol. 12 No. 4, (winter 1998).
  • Beate Szerelmy et al .: Ireland . In: Baedeker travel guide . Karl Baedeker Verlag, Ostfildern 2002, ISBN 3-87504-192-5 , p. 274-279 .
  • Eamon O'Flaherty, Jennifer Moore: Limerick c. 840 to c. 1900: Viking Longphort to Victorian City 2010 ISBN 1904890717

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd (ed.): Cultural Heritage Component: Of the Waterway Corridor Study for the River Shannon from Meelick to the Shannonbridge at Limerick, including all of Lough Derg . Limerick 2006, p. 9 . ( Full text ( memento of March 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 856 kB) as digital copy)
  2. ^ In 2003 archaeological investigations along the route of a proposed road near Waterford city uncovered a large number of Viking artefacts including lead weights and silver ingots. In: [1]

Coordinates: 52 ° 41 ′ 4.5 "  N , 8 ° 36 ′ 16.4"  W.