Doon from Drumsna

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The Doon of Drumsna ( Irish Droim ar Snámh ) is the largest prehistoric enclosure in Ireland . It is east of Carrick-on-Shannon in a bend in the river Shannon , on the border of Counties Roscommon and Leitrim . The eponymous place Drumsna ( Irish Droim ar Snámh ) is outside, east of the Dun , which is now accessible from the east and west via the Drumsna and Jamestown Bridge. The Doon is the most important wall system in Ireland , along with the Dorsey ramparts in County Armagh and the Great Wall of Ulidia .

The Doon (from Irish Dún ) was apparently built to protect the 23 km south-west royal seat of Connacht on Rathcroghan . It was described in 1915 by WF de Vismes Kane, one of the leading Irish entomologists of the day. In the 1980s it was examined by Tom Condit and Victor Buckley with the help of the geophysicist Damien McGarry and the result was published in the journal Emania in 1989.

description

The land side of the river bend was cordoned off by an almost straight massive earth wall over a kilometer long. The canal running to the south dates from the 19th century. The earth wall was about six meters high and 30 meters wide. Smaller walls with a ditch in between lie parallel to the north and south of the main wall. Its north side was steep and impassable in view of a moorland. There were gateways in two places. The main gate was 26 m wide and had goal posts two square meters (1.4 × 1.4 m) in cross section. The east gate was 23 m wide and narrowed to 16 m to the north. There were two side walls. Their purpose was apparently to prevent river crossings. De Vismes Kane discovered iron-studded wooden posts that formed barriers in the style of Cheval de Fries .

Time and purpose

Condit and Buckley estimated that building the ramparts and moats would take 10,000 people over two years. 50 to 60,000 trees were built and 150,000 cubic meters of earth were moved. They assume an origin in the Iron Age , 2000 or more years ago, and think of the unrest between the mythical Queen Medb of Connacht and the peoples of the north mentioned in the Táin Bó Cuailnge , a legend of the Ulster cycle .

literature

  • Tom Condit, Victor M. Buckley: The Doon of Drumsna: an iron age frontier fortification in Connacht. Archeology Ireland heritage guide, no.1. Bray, Co. Wicklow 1998
  • Tom Condit, Victor M. Buckley: The Doon of Drumsna - a Celtic Iron Age Frontier. Leitrim Guardian, 1997

Coordinates: 53 ° 55 '8.5 "  N , 8 ° 1' 9.1"  W.