Digging up oldest town in Ireland

A HILLFORT located in Co Wicklow has been declared the “largest nucleated settlement in prehistoric Ireland and Britain".

- BY REBECCA BLACK

Researchers at Belfast's Queen's University also contend that the site, just south of Dublin, is Ireland’ earliest proto-town. It is thought to be two millennia older than the Viking towns that were previously believed to be the earliest urban settlements on the island of Ireland.

The hillfort cluster features a “necklace” of up to 13 hilltop forts, including seven major hillforts, as well as other enclosures spanning the early Neolithic to late Bronze Age (c 3700-800 BC), near the town of Baltinglass.

The Queen's University-led study examined existing archaeological data from Brusselstown Ring, as well as conducting new excavations.

It found that terrestrial survey work in the past decade had detected 288 potential hut sites, but aerial surveys from 2017 and 2022 indicated more than 600 topographical anomalies consistent with prehistoric house platforms.