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| We've more and older archeology than England? |
It seems that ancient Irish tales of "hollow hills" (underground caverns in mountains, as in Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" where ogres and supernatural beings dwell) are true. There are hillforts throughout the Emerald Isle. And the largest ever found in Northern Europe has just been uncovered, and it's massive.
Ireland discovery: the largest site ever
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| What, our pre-Christian roots go way back? |
A vast prehistoric settlement hidden in the hills of County Wicklow is forcing archaeologists to rethink how people lived in Ireland more than 2,700 years ago.
What began as a closer look at a single hillfort has revealed a sprawling complex of ramparts, houses, and enclosures that specialists now say may be the largest clustered village ever identified in Ireland and Britain.
The scale of the discovery, and the suggestion that it could be the biggest prehistoric site of its kind in Northern Europe, is already reshaping debates about when urban-style living first emerged on the Atlantic edge of the continent.
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| We Irish Paddies stand with Palestinians! |
The Wicklow hill that turned into a mega‑site
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| Baltinglass hillfort archeological site (monumentalireland.ie) |
The story starts with a familiar landmark in the Irish landscape, a hillfort in Baltinglass that locals have long known as a dramatic feature above the County Wicklow countryside.
Archaeologists had catalogued it as one of several prominent fortified sites in the region, but new survey work has shown that the hilltop is only the core of a much larger complex.
What once looked like a single enclosure now appears to sit within a dense cluster of prehistoric houses and additional earthworks that extend across the slopes and surrounding ridges. More
- Cassian Holt, Morning Overview via MSN (msn.com/AA1Ts3), Jan. 2, 2026; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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