What was Dun Aengus built for?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ส.ค. 2024
- In this video we examine the history and the likely utlities for which the mysterious ancient Irish fort Dun Aengus may have been used for.
Thank you to Nick Swann for permission to use his great footage in this video:
/ @nickswann8535
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It's a fort. There are loads on Inishmore. Cheveux de Fris sharp rocks to prevent horse charges. There are tunnels, narrow openings and wells for prolonged sieges.
We forget that the climate 3000 years ago was different to what we know today. The Burren was heavily forested back then and it’s likely the landscape on Inis Mor was not as we know it today, so it’s hard with our current mindset to imagine what the place must have been like back then.
It’s a fort . It’s literally my family history .It was built by the family /war machine - named Downey the Irish surname that means in English “belonging to a fort”.
That name was changed to Downey after a massive loss in war. Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Dúnadhaigh ‘descendant of Dúnadhach’ a personal name meaning ‘fortress-holder’ . It’s in my family tree .apparently its from the 1200's BC . The Dunadhach fort under several coat of arms . Over several century’s .
What about self defence ? Fairly clear it's built to keep people out
I wish they had put down the music score in the information area, it's beautiful! Does anyone know what it is??
I’ve seen some theories that it was a tsunami shelter(not kidding)
1. They don’t really know how old it is so 10,000 plus years ago the Atlantic was 400 ft lower at the end of the ice age but the island itself was hundreds of feet lower since it hadn’t rebounded from the mile thick ice sheet covering most of Ireland
2. It was a full circle and the inclined bracing on the outside might have improved access for the hundreds of people running from a 30+ foot wave
3. Nowhere in the original construction did they use any of the boulders lying around tossed up by the sea during storms since they weren’t there yet
4. There’s also the “chevaux de frise “ surrounding the fort which would help deflect any waves with debris
Here’s a link if anyone is interested in it. It’s a lot of reading but somewhere in there it mentions Galway Bay’s original name in Gaelic was for a lake of fresh water since with sea levels 400 feet lower it would have been more like Lough Corrib
Anyway good luck if this interests you
aran-islands-tsunami-shelters.com/
that's fascinating...I don't think there's much awareness of this theory in Galway or the surrounding area..will definetely have a read..
Wouldn't the other side of the island be a more practical side if you were worried about the sea.
I agree but That might have been the middle of the island before erosion. I left a link with all the theories.
@@murphster63 I think it's an amphitheatre for honing in boats! Doesn't anybody find it compelling that ireland was covered in the same size stones. Every field had enough stones to surround said field with enough to build a wall to enclose it. Tsunami came. Certainly didnt arrive on a glacier! Civilisation washed away 9000 years ago if u ask me...along with large animals. Giant Elk 11000 years ago and bear 9000 years ago! Two separate hits. Could Iran Erin Aryan be one in the same?
Atlantis perhaps?
It’s interesting that with all the Connemara granite boulders lying around none were used to build the limestone walls. They think the walls are older than whatever forces delivered the granite boulders. They key to understanding is not to assume anything. While I think the tsunami shelter theory is interesting I really don’t know anything for sure. I do know a fort with ramps for the enemy to walk up doesn’t make any sense
Subscribed for the T.F. “I shall smite thee in my footnotes”O’Rahilly references.
Fight Arena. Like a Coliseum.
There is archaeological evidence that Dun Aengusa was at least begun circa 1100 BC. The Fir Bolg pre-dated the Danaans, who built stone dolmens, so clearly they arrived many centuries before the people you're talking about here, and their name is well explained in the Lebor Gabala from their origin in Greece. Laigin (meaning 'learned') were people from what is now called Leinster, and were not Britons. If they had anything to do with this story, they were Danaans fleeing the Milesians, who were Gaels invading from Galicia. (The earliest evidence of a Gaelic presence is circa 1100 BC.) It is probable that Danaans were entering the West Country (later Connaught) to avoid the Milesians, that the Fir Bolg of the West Country resisted the Danaans' arrival (in a late rendition of the archetypal Moytura Cong battle) and lost to them, and that Dun Aengusa was the castle they built against the Danaans. There are a few other possibilities. One is that both Dun Aengusa and Dun Conor were built because at the end of the 2nd millennium BC the weather was bad, so those were times of local conflict. Another is that at some point Fir Bolg and Danaans united to hold the Aran Islands forts against the Milesians, but they are always associated with the Fir Bolg.
It looks like this site is on the western side of Ireland, what is the purpose of building a fortification on this side during the time it was built? Wouldn't most threats come from east? Is there a riverhead nearby? Forgive me, I'm not very familiar with the geography of Ireland.
Hey there,
Yes, you're right. It's on the west coast and there weren't a whole lot of threats coming across the Atlantic...but there were 2 plausible threats that could have drove the structure to be constructed at this location.
The most likely is that the Fir Bhoilg were driven out of Connaught during the Laighin conquest and that this was the most secure position for them to set up a fortification (nobody can approach from the sea and any invaders coming from land would be spotted quite a distance away - individuals in the fort would have the high ground for defense). The other possibility is that it could have at some point in time have been used to spot, patrol and defend against pirates. Merchants in Galway may have paid for this service. Both possibilities are somewhat speculative....the former is the more likely scenario in my opinion.
The Cultural Cache
Thanks for your quick response.
I’ve never been there ,but could a person jump off the cliff side? Kinda like a Masada , last stand for people who would rather die than surrender?
If it was a defensive structure then what was it defending?
The questions are:when was it built,who built it,did someone live there?/does someone still live there,what was it used for/what is it used for,where is it,what is the building,how was it built/material/how many ppl did it take to build it,who owns it,who designed it?? Pls hellppp
The problem with this site is there is no reason for its location that we know of, it could just so happen sometime way back maybe thousands of years ago there was a collapse of land into the sea and that idea will stir up more questions as how far out into the sea did this land go, what caused the collapse, or did the sea rise, did this happen when Doggerland between England and Norway disappeared under the sea, has this anything to do with the old Irish story of Tir Na Nog
So basically I have to do a project on dún aengus and dun aongusa keeps on coming up are the both the same place??????
omg same
Looks to me like it was built by a people who wanted to see who was coming and wanted to be prepared. They were druids and worshipped the sun and this uninterrupted horizon would be a great place to track its movements
You are listing 4 possible purposes for this place. None of the 4 is military (fortification). I can’t believe my eyes
It seems that a landslide happened there in a day and night
Start researching melted buildings........... They are all over the realm