Navan Fort - Location and Description of The Site

Location and Description of The Site

The site is a State Care Historic Monument in the townland of Navan, in Armagh City and District Council area. It is located on a low hill approximately 1.6 miles (2.6 km) west of the city of Armagh (at grid ref. area H847 452). The site consists of 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 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 Tara and 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. Artifacts 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).

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.

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.