MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS
OF IRELAND.COM
OF IRELAND.COM
| RATHCROGHAN CELTIC ROYAL SITE |
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| PHOTO by Pip POWELL JUN 2010 |
| Rathcruachan may be one of the most important and best preserved Celtic Royal Sites in Europe. Rathcruachan was an Iron Age Royal Palace, the home of the Irish warrior 'Queen Medb' (or Meave), who was responsible for launching the Cattle Raid of Cooley, as recounted in one of the best known works of early Irish literature, the 'Táin Bó Cuailnge'. It was the inauguration site of the Kings of Connaught and is at the centre of a vast complex of Royal sites, mounds, barrows and standing stones and rivals the other Royal sites of Tara in County Meath and Eamhain Macha in County Down. The site also includes 'Rathbeg', a smaller triple-ditch ring-fort 500m to the NW and 'Rath na dTrabh' ( fort of the bulls ) 650m due west. |
| CO-ORDINATES 53 48' 12.614"N...8 18' 13.123"W |