Hill of Tara
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| Hill of Tara; Teamhair na Rí | |
|---|---|
 Hill of Tara, County Meath |
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| Elevation | 197 m (646 ft) |
| Location | County Meath,  Ireland |
| Prominence | 180 m (591 ft) |
| Coordinates | Coordinates: |
The Hill of Tara (Irish Teamhair na Rí, "Hill of the King"), located near the River Boyne, is an archaeological complex that runs between Navan and Dunshaughlin in County Meath, Leinster, Ireland. It contains a number of ancient monuments, and, according to tradition, was the seat of Árd Rí na hÉireann, or the High King of Ireland. Current scholarship based on the research conducted by the Discovery Programme, indicates that Tara was not a true seat of Kingship, but a sacral site associated with Indo-European Kingship rituals.
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[edit] Ancient monuments
At the summit of the hill, to the north of the ridge, is an oval Iron Age hilltop enclosure, measuring 318 metres (1,043 ft) north-south by 264 metres (866 ft) east-west and enclosed by an internal ditch and external bank, known as Ráith na Ríogh (the Fort of the Kings, also known as the Royal Enclosure). The most prominent earthworks within are the two linked enclosures, a bivallate ring fort and a bivallete ring barrow known as Teach Chormaic (Cormac's House) and the Forradh or Royal Seat. In the middle of the Forradh is a standing stone, which is believed to be the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) at which the High Kings were crowned. According to legend, the stone would scream if a series of challenges were met by the would-be king. At his touch the stone would let out a screech that could be heard all over Ireland. To the north of the ring-forts is a small neolithic passage tomb known as Dumha na nGiall (the Mound of the Hostages), which dates to ca. 2000 BC.
To the north, just outside the bounds of the Ráith na Rig, is a ringfort with three banks known as Ráith na Seanadh (the Rath of the Synods). Excavations of this monument have produced Roman artifacts dating from the 1st-3rd centuries.
Further north is a long, narrow rectangular feature known as the Banqueting Hall, although it is more likely to have been a ceremonial avenue or cursus monument approaching the site, and three circular earthworks known as the Sloping Trenches and Gráinne's Fort. All three are large ring barrows which may have been built too close to the steep and subsequently slipped.
To the south of the Royal Enclosure lies a ring-fort known as Ráith Laoghaire (Laoghaire's Fort), where the eponymous king is said to have been buried in an upright position. Half a mile south of the Hill of Tara is another hill fort known as Rath Maeve, the fort of either the legendary queen Medb, who is more usually associated with Connacht, or the less well known legendary figure of Medb Lethderg, who is associated with Tara.
[edit] Tara's significance
For many centuries, historians worked to uncover Tara's mysteries, and suggested that from the time of the first Celtic influence until the 1169 invasion of Richard de Clare, the Hill of Tara was the island's political and spiritual capital. Due to the history and archaeology of Ireland being not well-integrated, archaeologists involved in recent research suggest that the complete story of the Hill of Tara remains untold.
The most familiar role played by the Hill of Tara in Irish history is as the seat of the kings of Ireland until the 6th century. This role extended until the 12th century, albeit without its earlier splendor. Regardless, the significance of the Hill of Tara predates Celtic times, although it has not been shown that Tara was continuously important from the Neolithic to the 12th century.
Previous scholarly dispute over Tara's initial importance advanced as archaeologists identified pre-Celtic monuments and buildings dating back to the Neolithic period around 5,000 years ago. One of these structures, the Mound of the Hostages, has a short passage which is aligned with sunset on the true astronomical cross-quarter days of November 8 and February 4, the ancient Celtic festivals of Samhain and Imbolc.[1] The mound's passage is shorter than the long entryways of monuments like Newgrange, which makes it less precise in providing alignments with the Sun; still, Martin Brennan, in The Stones of Time, states that the daily changes in the position of a 13-foot (4-m) long sunbeam are more than adequate to determine specific dates.
A theory that may predate the Hill of Tara's splendor before Celtic times is the legendary story naming the Hill of Tara as the capital of the Tuatha Dé Danann, pre-Celtic dwellers of Ireland. When the Celts established a seat in the hill, the hill became the place from which the kings of Meath ruled Ireland. Although there is much debate among historians as to how far the King's influence spread; it may have been as little as the middle of Ireland, it may have been all the northern half. The high kingship of the whole island was only established to an effective degree by Maelsheachlainn (Malachy) I. Irish pseudohistorians of the Middle Ages made it stretch back into prehistoric times. Atop the hill stands a stone pillar that was the Irish Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) on which the High Kings of Ireland were crowned; legends suggest that the stone was required to roar three times if the chosen one was a true king (compare with the Scottish Lia Fail). Both the Hill of Tara as a hill and as a capital seems to have political and religious influence, which diminished since St. Patrick's time.
At one time, it was a capital offense to make a fire within sight of Tara.
A grave was found near the hill that is supposedly that of King Lóegaire, who was said to be the last pagan king of Ireland.
During the rebellion of 1798, United Irishmen formed a camp on the hill but were attacked and defeated by British troops on 26 May 1798 and the Lia Fáil was moved to mark the graves of the 400 rebels who died on the hill that day. In the 19th century, the Irish Member of Parliament Daniel O'Connell hosted a peaceful political demonstration on Hill of Tara in favour of repeal of the Act of Union which drew over 750,000 people, which indicates the enduring importance of the Hill of Tara [2].
During the turn of the 20th century the Hill of Tara was excavated by British Israelists who thought that the Irish were part of the Lost Tribes of Israel and that the hill contained the Ark of the Covenant.[3]
[edit] Motorway development
The M3 motorway currently (2008) under construction will pass through the Tara-Skryne Valley - as does the existing N3 road. The distance between the motorway and the exact site of the Hill is 2.2 km (1.37 miles) - further than the existing N3 road. This development is intensely controversial and in late 2006, between the Christmas and New Year's holiday, works began despite protests.[4][5] On Sunday 23 September 2007 over 1500 people met on the hill of Tara to take part in a human sculpture representing a harp and spelling out the words "SAVE TARA VALLEY" as a call for the rerouting of the M3 motorway away from Tara valley[6].
Due to the potential radical alteration of this highly significant cultural and historical site, the Hill of Tara was included in the World Monuments Fund's 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the world [7].
[edit] Tara in Fiction
- The Hill of Tara is used in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series as a surveillance and travelling point by the Fairies of The Lower Elements.
- Tara is featured in the Chronicles of Faerie series by Canadian-Irish author O.R. Melling
- Tara is the name of the O'Hara family plantation in the novel and film Gone with the Wind as it was named after the Hill of Tara.
- It is also used in the album Tara by US black/thrash metal band Absu.
- Tara is also featured in the historical fiction novel by Edward Rutherfurd, The Princes Of Ireland.
- In the video game Rome: Total War, Tara is the capital of the Irish province, Hibernia.
- Irish singer Moya Brennan, former singer of Clannad, wrote and recorded an album about Tara, called Two Horizons.
- Tara is the name of a village featured in the PBS Kids Sprout cartoon series Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks. The Hill of Tara is shown in a number of episodes.
- The Hill of Tara is featured in the 1958 Disney film Darby O'Gill and the Little People.
- The Hill of Tara is featured as a primary location in Morgan Llywelyn's Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Knowth.com photo of Samhain sunrise at the Mound of Hostages "The Stone Age Mound of the Hostages is also aligned with the Samhain sun rise." The sun rises from the same angle on Imbolc.
- ^ Erin Go Faster - New York Times
- ^ Carew, Mairead (October 30, 2004). Tara and the Ark of the Covenant: A Search for the Ark of the Covenant by British Israelites on the Hill of Tara, 1899 -1902. Royal Irish Academy. ISBN 0954385527.
- ^ Eileen Battersby. "Is nothing sacred?", The Irish Times, 26 May 2007.
- ^ Glenn Frankel. "In Ireland, Commuters vs. Kings", The Washington Post, 22 January 2005, p. A01. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ Paula Geraghty. "In Ireland, Human Aerial Art at Tara: People power combines art protest and politics", Indymedia Ireland, 24 September 2007. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
- ^ http://wmf.org/pdf/Watch_2008_list.pdf
[edit] Further reading
- Raftery, Barry (1994) Pagan Celtic Ireland: The enigma of the Irish Iron Age. London, Thames and Hudson
[edit] External links
- Hill of Tara at Megalithic Ireland
- Tara at Ancient Worlds
- Aerial photos of the monuments
- Images of Hill of Tara
- Heritage of Ireland, Tara
- Mythical Ireland
- Boyne Valley Tourist Portal - Information on Tara
- King Ollamh Fodhla & The Great Feast of Tara
- TaraWatch
- World Monuments Fund's Watch List, including the Hill of Tara
- The Hill of Tara page on the World Monuments Fund's 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites
