Dunbeg Fort

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Overall view (2012)
Access (2007)

Dunbeg Fort ( Irish An Dún Beag - "the little dun") in County Kerry in Ireland is an Iron Age dun , which was used until the Middle Ages and in the manner of a Promontory Fort behind a separation of four, according to TB Barry, successively created earth walls and five ditches on a headland of the Dingle Peninsula . It is an Irish national monument .

The steep coast near the village of Fahan has a rocky protrusion here, this is directly on the R 559, the "Slea Head Road".

Dunbeg is part of the group of beehive huts in nearby Fahan. The once round dun, made of dry masonry , has partially fallen victim to erosion. The inner step-shaped wall is still six meters thick and about three meters high in places. On either side of the entrance there are small spaces within the wall and the access has side holes that a wooden beam could be inserted into to support a door. In the passage there is a so-called "doghole" close to the ground. The entrance is linteled, which Macalister believed to be the most remarkable in Ireland in 1898.

Inside the dun are the remains of a house that is rectangular on the inside and round on the outside, a shape that is also found in the smaller clochain in the monastery of Skellig Michael and which is found at Clochán na Carraige on the Aran island of Inishmore . The area behind the barrage is relatively poor.

A 16.5 m long basement covered with large slabs leads from the inside close to the outer wall.

Plants of the same name can be found in Ireland (e.g. in Killard County Clare , in Northern Ireland Ballynahinch County Down ) and near Oban in Scotland .

In January 2018, large parts of the fort were destroyed by a storm and subsequent landslide . The site has not been accessible since then (as of April 2019).

Web links

Commons : Dunbeg Fort  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Prehistoric promontory fort in Kerry damaged in storm. In: RTÉ online, January 4, 2018, accessed on May 7, 2019.

Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 12 ″  N , 10 ° 24 ′ 31 ″  W.