Navan Fort

Navan Fort stands on a low hill about 2.6 kilometres west of Armagh in County Armagh. It is a circular hilltop enclosure marked by a bank and ditch, with a central mound and the remains of a ring barrow inside. The site once held large timber buildings, including a roundhouse-like structure that was deliberately burnt and covered with earth. Archaeologists have found flint tools and pottery showing activity from the Neolithic period. The name Eamhain Mhacha refers to the goddess Macha, after whom nearby Armagh is also named. The fort was one of the great royal sites of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland and appears in Irish mythology, especially in the Ulster Cycle. Ptolemy, the second-century Greek geographer, noted a place called Isamnion in southeastern Ulster, which some scholars link to Navan. The site includes other ancient monuments such as Haughey’s Fort, the King’s Stables and Loughnashade. A huge timber structure built in the first century BC was filled with stones, burnt, and then covered to form the mound seen today. Visitors find a circular enclosure 250 metres across, with a large earthen mound 40 metres wide and 6 metres high at its centre. To the southeast lies a ring-barrow about 30 metres wide, marked by a circular ditch. The surrounding landscape includes the earlier hilltop enclosure of Haughey’s Fort and the King’s Stables, a man-made ritual pool. The site is set in open countryside, offering wide views over the countryside of County Armagh. The remains show how the monument was built, burnt and rebuilt over many centuries.