Prehistoric Earthworks
Earthworks are monuments of various shapes and sizes made simply by piling up earth, starting in the Stone Age with the banks of rare rounded enclosures such as the imposing Giant's Ring at Ballynahatty near Belfast, which has a small megalith near its centre, or the so-called causewayed camps at the Antrim sites of Lyles Hill and Donegore. Much more common are the U-shaped 'burnt mounds' or fulachta fiadha, in which water heated with hot stones was probably used for cooking, but possibly also for personal washing - or both. Widespread, too, are round mounds, or barrows, used for burials, of which a number of examples are known on the Hill of Tara.
Tara is only one of a number of important royal sites in Ireland that have mythological links with echoes going back to before the dawn of the country's history. One of these is Emhain Macha, Navan Fort, where a remarkable wooden structure 40m across, and consisting of half a dozen concentric circles of posts with a taller one at the centre, was built around 100 B.C. - only to be ritually set on fire some decades later. Of roughly the same date are long earthworks snaking across the borders of South Ulster, and known variously as the Dorsey, the Dane's Cast, or the Black Pig's Dyke. They may possibly have been erected to protect the province against invasion from the south - epitomised by the army of Queen Medhbh, whose royal seat was at Rathcroghan on the plains of Roscommon, where there is a large mound which is said to mark the area where she had her 'palace'. Another important royal site was Knockaulin or Dún Ailinne in Kildare (not regularly accessible), where excavations suggested the former presence there of a kind of wooden amphitheatre within a large, circular earthen hill-top fort.
Tara has a rare example of a cursus, which is the ceremonial end to a road with earthen banks on either side and to which the medieval chroniclers of Tara gave the romantic name of 'The Banqueting Hall'. The hill-top itself is within the so-called 'Royal Enclosure' consisting of an incomplete oval ditch inside a bank, which suggests more a ritual than a defensive purpose. Not far away is Rath Medhbh, a roughly circular enclosure, but more war-like because the ditch is outside the bank. This is the more usual configuration in the hill-forts found around Ireland, as at Mooghaun, Co. Clare, which - at over 27 acres - is probably the largest in the country. These earthen forts may date from the Late Bronze Age, around 700 B.C., or from the Iron Age which followed it.
Tara is only one of a number of important royal sites in Ireland that have mythological links with echoes going back to before the dawn of the country's history. One of these is Emhain Macha, Navan Fort, where a remarkable wooden structure 40m across, and consisting of half a dozen concentric circles of posts with a taller one at the centre, was built around 100 B.C. - only to be ritually set on fire some decades later. Of roughly the same date are long earthworks snaking across the borders of South Ulster, and known variously as the Dorsey, the Dane's Cast, or the Black Pig's Dyke. They may possibly have been erected to protect the province against invasion from the south - epitomised by the army of Queen Medhbh, whose royal seat was at Rathcroghan on the plains of Roscommon, where there is a large mound which is said to mark the area where she had her 'palace'. Another important royal site was Knockaulin or Dún Ailinne in Kildare (not regularly accessible), where excavations suggested the former presence there of a kind of wooden amphitheatre within a large, circular earthen hill-top fort.
Cruise ships visiting Dublin Port 2013
DISCOVERY
8th April 2013 @ 11:59
MARCO
POLO 12th April 2013 @ 03:45
DISCOVERY
13th April 2013 @ 11:59
CROWN
PRINCESS 26th April 2013 @ 11:59
LE BOREAL
5th May 2013 @ 06:00
FRAM 5th
May 2013 @ 07:00
CARIBBEAN
PRINCESS 8th May 2013 @ 07:00
LE BOREAL
15th May 2013 @ 06:00
ISLAND
SKY 15th May 2013 @ 19:00
QUEEN MARY
2 15th May 2013 @ 06:00
ARTANIA
16th May 2013 @ 07:00
SERENISSIMA
16th May 2013 @ 07:00
HAMBURG
17th May 2013 @ 06:00
CELEBRITY
INFINITY 17th May 2013 @ 06:30
MEIN SCHIFF
I 18th May 2013 @ 06:00
SILVER
EXPLORER 19th May 2013 @ 05:30
SILVER
WHISPER 19th May 2013 @ 07:00
CARIBBEAN
PRINCESS 21st May 2013 @ 07:00
EXPLORER
22nd May 2013 @ 06:45
ADONIA
22nd May 2013 @ 07:00
SILVER
EXPLORER 25th May 2013 @ 06:00
BRAEMAR
27th May 2013 @ 11:30
CARIBBEAN
PRINCESS 27th May 2013 @ 11:59
MSC
MAGNIFICA 28th May 2013 @ 03:45
DELPHIN
28th May 2013 @ 07:00
ISLAND
SKY 31st May 2013 @ 06:00
SEVEN SEAS
VOYAGER 5th June 2013 @ 07:00
CELEBRITY
INFINITY 8th June 2013 @ 09:30
DEUTSCHLAND
9th June 2013 @ 06:30
MARINA
9th June 2013 @ 07:15
ISLAND
SKY 14th June 2013 @ 06:00
CARIBBEAN
PRINCESS 14th June 2013 @ 07:00
ATHENA
15th June 2013 @ 07:00
ASTOR
19th June 2013 @ 06:00
PRINSENDAM
23rd June 2013 @ 06:00
NAUTICA
30th June 2013 @ 07:00
CARIBBEAN
PRINCESS 2nd July 2013 @ 07:00
CLUB MED
2 7th July 2013 @ 07:00
SEA
PRINCESS 8th July 2013 @ 11:59
ARCADIA
9th July 2013 @ 03:15
THE WORLD
11th July 2013 @ 09:45
COSTA
VOYAGER 13th July 2013 @ 07:00
AZAMARA
QUEST 14th July 2013 @ 06:00
CARIBBEAN
PRINCESS 14th July 2013 @ 07:00
SEA CLOUD
II 14th July 2013 @ 07:00
BOUDICCA
15th July 2013 @ 07:00
DEUTSCHLAND
16th July 2013 @ 07:00
WIND SURF
18th July 2013 @ 07:00
BALMORAL
18th July 2013 @ 16:30
ARTANIA
24th July 2013 @ 11:59
ORIANA
26th July 2013 @ 03:30
CARIBBEAN
PRINCESS 26th July 2013 @ 11:59
EURODAM
29th July 2013 @ 07:00
SAGA
SAPPHIRE 29th July 2013 @ 07:00
SEA CLOUD
II 30th July 2013 @ 05:00
MARCO
POLO 31st July 2013 @ 07:00
SILVER
CLOUD 31st July 2013 @ 07:00
OCEAN PRINCESS
1st August 2013 @ 07:00
VEENDAM
3rd August 2013 @ 06:00
QUEEN
ELIZABETH 7th August 2013 @ 03:00
MARINA
7th August 2013 @ 07:15
CARIBBEAN
PRINCESS 7th August 2013 @ 11:59
PRINSENDAM
9th August 2013 @ 07:00
CELEBRITY
INFINITY 9th August 2013 @ 11:00
EUROPA
10th August 2013 @ 06:00
OCEAN
PRINCESS 10th August 2013 @ 07:00
SILVER
CLOUD 11th August 2013 @ 07:00
VISION OF THE
SEAS 12th August 2013 @ 05:30
AIDACARA
16th August 2013 @ 06:30
BRAEMAR
16th August 2013 @ 07:00
PACIFIC STAR
PRINCESS 17th August 2013 @ 07:00
OCEAN
PRINCESS 18th August 2013 @ 07:00
MSC
MAGNIFICA 19th August 2013 @ 07:00
CARIBBEAN
PRINCESS 19th August 2013 @ 11:59
COLUMBUS
2 20th August 2013 @ 07:00
ORIANA
21st August 2013 @ 02:00
ALBATROS
21st August 2013 @ 07:00
PRINCESS
DANAE 22nd August 2013 @ 11:59
NAUTICA
24th August 2013 @ 07:00
MINERVA
25th August 2013 @ 11:00
CRYSTAL
SERENITY 26th August 2013 @ 01:00
OCEAN
PRINCESS 27th August 2013 @ 07:00
SEABOURN
SOJOURN 27th August 2013 @ 07:00
DISCOVERY
27th August 2013 @ 11:59
CLUB MED
2 28th August 2013 @ 07:00
BOUDICCA
28th August 2013 @ 12:00
SAGA
SAPPHIRE 29th August 2013 @ 07:00
AIDACARA 30th
August 2013 @ 06:30
CELEBRITY
INFINITY 31st August 2013 @ 07:00
WIND SURF 31st
August 2013 @ 07:00
DELPHIN
2nd September 2013 @ 07:00
OCEAN
PRINCESS 3rd September 2013 @ 07:00
THOMSON
SPIRIT 3rd September 2013 @ 07:00
BRILLIANCE OF
THE SEAS 4th September 2013 @ 09:30
SEVEN SEAS
VOYAGER 9th September 2013 @ 07:00
BREMEN
10th September 2013 @ 07:00
SEABOURN
PRIDE 11th September 2013 @ 05:30
MARCO
POLO 11th September 2013 @ 06:30
ATHENA
12th September 2013 @ 07:00
BOUDICCA 13th
September 2013 @ 18:00
SILVER
WHISPER 14th September 2013 @ 07:00
EXPLORER
20th September 2013 @ 07:00
VISION OF THE
SEAS 20th September 2013 @ 09:30
CARNIVAL
GLORY 22nd September 2013 @ 11:59
BOUDICCA
23rd September 2013 @ 06:30
BOUDICCA
3rd October 2013 @ 05:30
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