Distribution
Based on the morphology of hillforts, Raftery estimates that there are forty hillforts in Ireland. However, Lacy suggests that there are fifty forts remaining in Ireland. Multivallate hillforts are suggested to be confined to the West and South of the country; univallate forts are to be found in the north and east. The Grianán of Aileach is seen as an exception to this pattern. Raftery suggests that this simple division of distribution might be more blurred after further hillfort study and discovery.
The distribution of ringforts in general is much wider although we are a long way from knowing the exact number which still survive. Ringfort distribution is not even. Areas of low ringfort density correspond to intensely tilled, highly-Normanised areas. The assumption is that during the last eight centuries of tilling, many ringfort sites were destroyed. On this basis, Stout states that there are 45,119 ringforts in Ireland of which 41% have been positively identified as of March 1995. The mean density for Ireland as a whole is 0.55 per square kilometre. The density goes from below 0.20 per square kilometre in Donegal, Kildare and Dublin to above 1.0 per square kilometre in Roscommon, Limerick and Sligo. The regions of highest density are north Munster, east Connaught/ northwest Leinster and east Ulster. Areas of low density are in northwest Ulster and most of Leinster.
As one can see, Donegal is an area of low ringfort concentration. It is therefore odd to find a hillfort of the size and scope of Aileach in this area. The ringfort density of Northwest Ulster as a whole is 0.16 per square kilometre. Northwest Ulster includes all of Donegal and the western portions of Londonderry and Tyrone. Ringforts are virtually absent from the areas of Derryveagh, the Blue Stacks, Slieve League and Inishowen. Ringforts are rarely found in similarly elevated areas of Londonderry and Tyrone, including the Sperrin Mountains and west of the Roe River. Due to the inhospitable nature of these areas due to blanket bogs and thin rock, they were sparsely populated. There were pockets of settlement such as southwest Donegal. Ringsforts can be found along the eastern slopes of Derryveagh Mountains, the Roe River valley and the Mourne River basin. Although some Early Christian settlement is present, the areas as a whole was relatively sparsely settled with ringforts despite the Mourne and Foyle river valleys being extremely suitable for agricultural exploitation. Other forms of secular settlement are also thinly distributed in the area although several souterrains have been found. Northwest Ulster maintained a low population density throughout the Early Christian Era. Barrett examined ringforts in southern Donegal. She identified 124 ringforts in an area reaching from Glen Head to Lough Ekse and south along the county boundary to Bundoran. Thirty-two of the ringforts were cashels and 15% were bivallate sites. Ringfort builders avoided land below 30 metres preferring land between 30 and 60 metres. Soil quality was statistically proven to be a key determinant of settlement density. Brown earth and grey-brown podzolic soils were particularly favoured explaining the concentration of sites west of Donegal Bay. The brown earth soils and the podzolic soils of St. John’s peninsula also attracted a high proportion of sites. The distribution of ecclesiastical sites corresponds broadly with that of ringforts.
Read more about this topic: Grianan Of Aileach
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