Tara is chief among the best known ‘royal’ sites of Ireland, including Dún Ailinne in Leinster, Crúachain in Connacht and Emain Macha in Ulster. It is at once a landmark and a vantage point. The barrows, mounds, conjoined circular earthworks and buildings, timber henges, linear embankments and sacred springs and marshes at these royal centres together make up prehistoric ‘ritual landscapes’ that have evolved, in part by accident and in part by design, over many centuries. Hand in hand is the creation of a mythology that is every bit as real and potent as the monuments themselves - nowhere more so than at Tara. An examination of the surviving monuments tells us that the Hill of Tara was primarily a ritual site, a place where people came to bury their dead and where important events were celebrated by the community. It symbolised, authenticated and sustained the fabric of society. During the later prehistoric period it may have been guarded by the nearby fortified sites of Rath Lugh, Ringlestown Rath and Rath Miles. It may not have been until relatively late in its development that defence became a consideration at Tara itself. Raith na Rig, the major enclosure at Tara, like those at Dún Ailinne and Emain Macha, has its bank placed outside the ditch (or fosse), a patently non—defensive arrangement which appears to have had some special ritual significance. It has been suggested that the intention, rather than to deny access from without, was to contain a potent, otherworldly force. It is possible that the practice of using internally-ditched enclosures to define sacred space belongs to a long standing tradition from the Late Neolithic to the Iron Age. It seems unlikely that there was ever a resident population at Tara in the prehistoric period and at times religious convention may have prevented anyone from living there at all. There are over thirty visible monuments on the Hill of Tara and as many again that have no surface remains but which have been identified using geophysical prospection techniques and aerial photography. Most of the monuments on Tara can only be dated by comparison with others of known date elsewhere. Only two sites have been excavated, the Mound of the Hostages, one of the earliest monuments on Tara, and the Rath of the Synods which may be one of the latest. This gives a general time bracket for the monuments on Tara extending from the Neolithic (c. 5500 BC) to the later Iron Age (c. 400 AD). It is sometimes possible to establish a relative chronology for the monuments. For instance, the ramparts of Raith na Rig were laid out in such a way as to avoid the Mound of the Hostages, demonstrating that Raith na Rig is later. The earliest monument so far identified is a large, probably palisaded enclosure around the summit of the hill that was built during the Neolithic period. Part of this enclosure was found beneath the Mound of the Hostages. Only a few enclosures of this date are known from Ireland, e.g. at Knowth, County Meath and Lyles Hill, County Antrim, and although domestic activity is attested in some of them, in the majority of cases there is also evidence of ritual behaviour associated with death. Evidence from Britain suggests that comparable Neolithic hilltop enclosures may have been used specifically for seasonal gatherings. Most of the monuments at Tara are barrows - circular burial or funerary monuments consisting of a low earthen mound surrounded by a ditch and sometimes an outer bank. From the one hundred or so of these that have been excavated in Ireland it is evident that they remained in use from the Late Neolithic to the first few centuries after the birth of Christ. Although barrows cannot always be dated on the basis of outward appearances alone, it is likely that the majority of those at Tara date to the Bronze Age. Time and erosion, agriculture and soil regeneration have reduced many of them to barely perceptible circles in the grass. There is a particular concentration of barrows along the north-western and northern flanks of the hill, forming a small cemetery. SMR No.: ME031-033001-, ME031-033002-, ME031-033003-, ME031-033004-, ME031-033005-, ME031-033006-, ME031-033007-, ME031-033008-, ME031-033009-, ME031-033010-, ME031-033011-, ME031-033012-, ME031-033013-, ME031-033014-, ME031-033015-, ME031-033016-, ME031-033017-, ME031-033018-, ME031-033019-, ME031-033020-, ME031-033021-, ME031-033022-, ME031-033023-, ME031-033024-, ME031-033025-, ME031-033026-, ME031-033027-, ME031-033028-, ME031-033029-, ME031-033030-, ME031-033031-, ME031-033032-, ME031-033033-, ME031-033034-, ME031-033035-, ME031-033036-, ME031-033037-, ME031-033038-, ME031-033039-, ME031-033040-, ME031-033041-, ME031-033042-, ME031-033043-, ME031-033044-, ME031-033045-, ME031-033046-, ME031-033047-, ME031-033048-, ME031-033049-, ME031-033050-, ME031-033051-, ME031-033052-, ME031-033053-, ME031-033054-, ME031-033055-, ME031-033056-, ME031-033057-, ME031-033058-, ME031-033059-, ME031-033060-, ME031-033061-, ME031-033062-, ME031-033063-, ME031-033064-, ME031-033065-, ME031-033066-, ME031-033067-, ME031-033068-, ME031-033069-, ME031-033070-, ME031-033071-, ME031-033072-, ME031-033073-, ME031-033074-, ME031-033075-, ME031-033076-, ME031-033077-, ME031-033078-, ME031-033079-, ME031-033080-, ME031-033081-, ME031-033082-, ME031-033083-

Metadata	Information
Source	The Discovery Programme
Contacts	Mr Anthony Corns Technology Manager The Discovery Programme 63 Merrion Square Dublin D2 Dublin Dublin Ireland +353 1 639 3039 +353 1 639 3710 info@discoveryprogramme.ie The Discovery Programme
Copyright Credit Line	Copyright ©The Discovery Programme
Europeana Rights	Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)
Spatial	Hill of Tara http://www.logainm.ie/1410576.aspx County Meath Ireland
Protection Type	National Monuments in State Care
Start Date	Uncertain
End Date	Uncertain
Period Name	Uncertain
Materials	Stone, Earth
Heritage Asset Type	Linear earthwork, Enclosure, Ringfort - rath, Barrow - unclassified, Hilltop enclosure, Ring-ditch, Graveyard, Mound, Church, Standing stone, Font, Battlefield, Megalithic tomb - passage tomb, Sheela-na-gig, Road - trackway, Barrow - bowl barrow