Dorsey (Armagh)

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Dorsey (also Dorsy , Dorsey Ramparts , Irish Na Doirse - ( German  the gates ) called) are next to Navan Fort one of the largest earthworks in Northern Ireland . Enclosures of this kind are called ( English enclosure ). The irregular, roughly tilde-shaped , Iron Age structure in "Ó Fiaich Country" in the south of Armagh was dated 100 BC. And is located near the village of Drummill. It is part of a line of earthworks that surround Ulster to the south and are known as the Great Wall of Ulidia .

The Dorsey crosses Bonds Road

It is a 0.8 × 1.6 km earthworks made up of walls and ditches that encompass an area of ​​over 100 hectares. Surveys and excavations have shown that Dorsey, in the middle of which is a bog, has the following elements:

  • On the south side there are two separate larger sections, consisting of a wall between two large trenches, with traces of the further course of the wall.
  • On the north side there was a wall that was not as massive as the one in the south with only one ditch.
  • In the east a 500 m long, large wall with a ditch ran mostly parallel to the Ummeracam river
  • The excavation revealed a trench with a palisade on the west side.

Dorsey, neglected and overgrown, can be seen at various points along the course. However, it is practically unknown and hardly recognizable as an important cultural monument.

The analysis of the wood of the palisade and a sheet pile wall in the swampy southwest area revealed a date in the period of the construction of Navan Fort . This led to the assumption of a cultural link between the two locations, and Dorsey to be viewed as a controlled access to Armagh. The enclosure is at the southern approaches of the Fews Mountains, on an old north-south route in Armagh.

Although it is described as a cohesive structure, the archaeologist Ch. Lynn assumed that Dorsey developed in several construction phases, which is also indicated by the 40 years later dating of the wood in the north wall. He also believes that the name "the doors" or "gates" suggests that the ramparts and moats of Dorsey were the border fortifications of the kingdom of the Uí Néill in Ulster , whose capital was Navan Fort ( Emain Macha ) . Declan Hurl, who led an excavation on Dorsey in 2002, assumes a use as a settlement, pasture, fortress or a facility for ritual purposes. However, Hurl points out that the previous findings do not yet allow a clear classification.

When Dorsey was established, the power of the Ulster kings is said to have been greatest. Sometime later, Ulster was threatened from the south and Dorsey may have been part of a more extensive system known in the counties of Monaghan , Cavan , Leitrim and Fermanagh as one of several "The Black Pig's Dykes" in Ireland based on mythical occurrences is. A menhir near the Dorsy River is called "Calliagh Berra's Stone" (or Cloghfin , Irish An Chloch Fhionn , "the white stone").

literature

  • NB Aitchison: The Dorsey: a reinterpretation of an Iron Age enclosure in South Armagh
  • Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland: Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland. Belfast 1987, p. 19, ISBN 0-337-08180-8

Web links

Coordinates: 54 ° 6 ′ 39.3 "  N , 6 ° 33 ′ 41.9"  W.