Rock of Dunamase

The Rock of Dunamase as seen from the valley below

View from the Rock of Dunamase, showing Dunamase Church

The Rock of Dunamase (Dun Masc "the fort of Masc" in Irish Gaelic), is one of the most historic sites in Ireland. Its ruins date back many hundreds of years. The Rock stands 150 feet (46m) tall in the heart of what is otherwise a flat plain, and was ideal as a defensive position with its view right up to the Slieve Bloom Mountains.

Pre-Celtic Bronze age settlers were the first to fortify it, followed by the Celts themselves. Among them was King Laois Mor, who gave his name to the county.

The Vikings plundered it in 845, and in the 13th century it was given to Strongbow the Norman as a gift from his new father-in-law, Diarmiud Mac Murrough. It is Mac Murroughs castle which lies in ruin atop the rock today. The Castle went through some major changes of ownership over the years after this. Through bargaining and back-stabbing (most likely in a very literal sense) it passed through the hands of Strongbow to the Anglo-Norman Mortimer family, and from them to the descendants of Laois Ceann Moore. The O'Moores, used it as a staging point from which to make the Normans lives miserable. The O'Moores renovated the Mac Murroughs castle quite extensively in the 15th century, and they successfully defended it for over a century until the arrival of the planters, who displaced the O'Moores and exiled them to Kerry along with the Fitzpatricks, the O'Dempseys, the O'Lawlors, and the O'Dunnes in 1607. Finally, Oliver Cromwell sacked the castle in 1650 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. One can still see the trenches where his troops were based.

Located in County Laois, the site is a short distance from the N80, between the towns of Portlaoise and Stradbally.

External link

• Dunamase Archeology

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