Moghane Hillfort
Coordinates: 52 ° 46 ′ 38 " N , 8 ° 53 ′ 11" W.
Moghane Hillfort (also Mooghaun, Irish An Múchán ) in County Clare is the largest Bronze Age (1260-930 BC) hill fortification in Ireland . Moghane is about. 1.5 km northeast of Newmarket-on-Fergus . From the observation deck at the summit offers a magnificent view over the estuary of Fergus .
Barry Raftery (1944–2010) examined 40 single and multiple walled systems on the island (around 80 are known) and divided the Hillforts into three classes:
- Class 1: Simply walled systems made of earth or stone with or without a ditch.
- Class 2: Systems with extensive, multiple walls on hills or cliffs.
- Class 3: Inland Promontory Forts
Moghane, a Class 2 hillfort, covers several acres and is different in size from the other hillforts in Ireland. An outer and concentrically arranged inner rampart is located around a 79 m high hilltop. The walls are 12 m wide in places, but strongly rounded and reach heights of less than three meters. The outer wall (not visible in the aerial photo) is about 1.5 km long, spans about 27 hectares and cuts through a stone ring fort , as occurs everywhere in Clare. Another dun is located below the enclosure on the hillside. These structures may not have been integrated until a later point in time.
The gold find
Today Moghane is one of the most famous prehistoric places in the country, not least because of the nearby gold discovery ( Great Clare Gold Find ). In 1854 a hoard with lavishly decorated gold objects was discovered during the construction of the railway line from Limerick to Ennis . He contributed to the fact that the period between the older and younger Bronze Age in Ireland is also known as the "Gold Age". The antiquarian Thomas J. Westropp describes the discovery as "one of the greatest in Irish archeology". Chemical analysis indicated that much of the early gold finds came from an area around Croagh Patrick, County Mayo.
literature
- Eoin Grogan: North Munster Project. Discovery Program Reports 4: Project Results and Reports 1994. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy , pp. 26-46. (1996)
- Darren Limbert: Irish Ringforts: A Review of Their Origins. The Archaeological Journal: The Royal Archaeological Institute , Vol. 153: pp. 243-289. (1996)
- Matthew Stout : The Irish Ringforts. Dublin 1997, ISBN 1-85182-582-7
- Peter Harbison : Guide to the National Monuments in the Republic of Ireland. Gill and Macmillan, Dublin 1992, ISBN 0-7171-1956-4 , p. 46