Emain Macha

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Emain Macha, the capital of the Ulaid (Ulstermen) in early Irish writing. Pseudo-historical tradition assigns its foundation to the 7th cent. BC and its collapse to about the 4th cent. AD, when the Ulaid dynasty was driven into the east of the province. The legendary site is identified with Navan Fort, a large earthwork approximately 2 miles west of Armagh, which Macha [see Irish mythology] marked out with her breast-pin (eo-muin), having won the sovereignty of Ireland. A series of round houses, presumably associated with the regional aristocracy, gave way in the 1st cent. BC to the erection of a massive circular temple or hall. This was subsequently buried under a stone cairn and covered with an earthen mound. The literary associations of Emain Macha centre on its pivotal position as the capital of the Ulaid in the Ulster cycle, like Camelot in the Arthurian tales. The site had achieved the status of a national monument by the Middle Ages. It was visited by Brian Bóroime in 1005.

Name borne both by an 18 acre late Bronze Age hill-fort in Co. Armagh, capital of the Ulaid, and also by the mythical capital of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle, royal seat of Conchobar mac Nessa, which is identified with the hill-fort; one of the most often cited place-names in early Irish literature.

The hill-fort, also called Navan Fort [Modern Irish An Eamhain], lies at Navan, 2 miles Welsh of Armagh, Northern Ireland. An immense circular bank, now defaced, and ditch enclose a number of earth and stone works. At the summit rests a univallate tumulus, once a residential site subsequently used for ceremonial purposes. Excavation (1963–71) has established that the round house was begun c.700 BC and rebuilt nine times before 100 BC; the surrounding stockade was rebuilt six times. Emain Macha is probably identical with the Isamnion mentioned in Ptolemy's geography (2nd cent. AD). The survival of the skull of a Barbary ape at Emain Macha implies that the site was known far beyond Ireland. The residence was destroyed, or abandoned, when ravaged by the three Collas from rival areas in Ulster, some time before the advent of Christian evangelization, perhaps in the 5th century. Fergus Foga was the last king of Emain Macha. The abandoned hill-fort continued to be the site of an annual feis [feast] through medieval times.

The Emain Macha of myth and legend is a far grander and more mysterious place than archaeological excavation supports. It contained the fabled palace of Cráebruad [Red Branch], giving us the once popular name for the Ulster Cycle, the ‘Red Branch’ Cycle; the name is echoed in the village of Creeveroe, Co. Armagh. Two queens named Macha are associated with the founding of the fortress. The less well-known is Macha (2), queen of Cimbáeth, whom she dominated and obliged to build a residence in her honour. She marked out the area with her brooch, thus the folk etymology of emain as eo, bodkin + muin, neck = brooch, as authorized by Geoffrey Keating (17th cent.). The better known is Macha (3), wife of Crunniuc mac Agnomain. At a fair in Ulster Crunniuc boasts that his wife could beat a horse-drawn chariot in a foot-race, even though she was pregnant and near to her delivery. Macha cries out to be released from the bargain. A messenger tells her the child will die unless she complies. She succeeds in winning the race, giving birth to twins, a boy and a girl, at the finishing line; some commentators gloss emain as ‘twins’ from this episode. For her humiliation and her birth pangs she curses the men of Ulster with comparable suffering unto nine generations; women, young boys, and Cúchulainn were exempted. Cráebruad was the best-known of the three great halls at Emain Macha; it had nine rooms of red yew, partitioned by walls of bronze, surrounding Conchobar's apartment with silver ceiling and bronze pillars topped with gold. The second, Cráebderg [ruddy branch], contained the treasure-house as well as the heads of slain enemies. The third, Téte Brec [twinkling hoard], held the weapons and armour. Weapons were not to be brought into Emain Macha, and the grounds contained a hospital for sick and wounded warriors. Bainche was the architect or stonemason of Emain Macha; Bairdéne the doorkeeper. The 1960s’ excavations prompted a large-scale scholarly and popular interest in the site. The Navan Centre for visitors, with displays and multi-media show, opened in 1993. See J. P. Mallory, Navan Fort: The Ancient Capital of Ulster (Belfast, 1987). The serial publication Emania: Bulletin of the Navan Research Group (Belfast) began in 1986.

Navan Fort should not be confused with Navan in County Meath.

Emain Macha seen from the outer bank, the 40 metre mound in the background, courtesy of pdphoto.org

Emain Macha or Emuin Macha (Old Irish, pronounced /ˈeṽənʲ ˈṽaxə/), Eamhain Mhacha (Modern Irish, pronounced /ˈawnʲ ˈwaxə/), sometimes Latinised/Anglicised as Emania and known in English as Navan Fort, is an ancient monument in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Although called a "fort", it is considered more likely to have been a ritual or ceremonial site. It appears to have been abandoned by the first century AD. It is also a significant site in Irish mythology, particularly the Ulster Cycle.

Ancient monuments

The site, on a low hill approximately 1.6 miles (2.6 km) west of the city of Armagh, is a circular enclosure 250 metres (820 ft) in diameter, surrounded by a bank and ditch. Unusually, the ditch is inside the bank, suggesting it was not built for defensive purposes. Inside the enclosure two monuments are visible. Off-centre to the north-west is an earthen mound 40 metres (130 ft) in diameter and 6 metres (20 ft) high. Also slightly off-centre to the south-east is the circular impression of a ring-barrow, the ploughed-down remains of a late prehistoric ceremonial or burial monument, about 30 metres (100 ft) in diameter.

Archaeological excavations have revealed that the construction of the 40 metre mound dates to 95 BC (securely dated by dendrochronology). A circular structure consisting of four concentric rings of posts around a central oak trunk was built, its entrance facing west (prehistoric houses in the British Isles invariably face east, towards the sunrise). The floor of the building was covered with stones arranged in radial segments, and the whole edifice was deliberately burnt down before being covered in a mound of earth and turf (there is archaeological evidence for similar repeated construction and immolation of Temuir and the Dún Ailinne). The bank and ditch that surround the hilltop were built at the same time.

No secure date can be assigned to the ring-barrow, but excavations and geophysical surveys have revealed the remains of a figure–of–eight shaped wooden building underneath. The larger ring of the figure–of–eight was 30 metres (100 ft) in diameter, the smaller about 20 metres (65 ft). The building had been rebuilt twice. Similar, slightly smaller structures, each with a central hearth, were found under the 40 metre mound. Artefacts found in these layers show they were inhabited in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age (approximately 600 to at least 250 BC). Perhaps the most unusual item found in these layers was the skull of a Barbary Macaque.

An earlier Bronze Age structure, a circular ditch surrounding the mound, 45 metres (150 ft) in diameter, 5 metres (16 ft) wide and 1 metre (3 ft) deep, was also found, and flint tools and fragments of pottery show activity at the site in the Neolithic (ca. 4000 to 2500 BC).

The Navan complex

Other significant prehistoric sites in the vicinity include Haughey's Fort, an earlier Bronze Age hill fort two-thirds of a mile (1 km) to the west; the King's Stables, an artificial pool also dating to the Bronze Age; and Loughnashade, a natural lake which has produced Iron Age artefacts.

Emain Macha in Irish mythology

According to Irish mythology and historical tradition it was the capital of the Ulaid, the people who gave their name to the province of Ulster. It was supposedly founded by the goddess Macha in the 5th or 7th century BC, and was the seat of Conchobar mac Nessa in the tales of the Ulster Cycle. Conchobar is said to have had three houses at Emain Macha:

• the Cróeb Ruad ("Dull Red Branch", whence derives the nearby townland of Creeveroe) where the king sat;
• the Cróeb Derg ("Bright Red Branch"), where trophies of battle were kept, and
• the Téte Brecc ("Speckled Hoard") where the warriors' weapons were stored.

The name Emain Macha is variously explained as "Macha's neck-brooch", after Macha marked out the boundaries of the site with her brooch, and "Macha's twins", after Macha gave birth to twins after being forced to compete in a chariot-race. The Annals of the Four Masters record that it was abandoned after it was burned by the Three Collas in 331 AD, after they had defeated Fergus Foga, king of Ulster, in battle at Achadh Leithdheirg

Recent history

Until 1985 the site was threatened by the expansion of a nearby limestone quarry. Due largely to the efforts of the activist group Friends of Navan, a public inquiry held that year halted further quarrying, and recommended that the site be developed for tourism. A visitor centre, featuring archaeological artefacts and audio-visual exhibitions, was opened in 1993, but closed in 2001 for lack of funds. It reopened on a seasonal basis in 2005 after the site was bought by Armagh City and District Council.

References

• Chris Lynn, Navan Fort: Archaeology and Myth, Wordwell Books, 2003
• Ronald Hutton, Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, 1991

External links

• Navan Centre and Fort at Visit Armagh
• "High Hopes for NI Tourist Centre" (BBC News)
• BBC Timelines
• Environment and Heritage Service page on Navan Fort, with photos
• Geography in Action: Navan Fort

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