Archaeology Ireland

Archaeology Ireland magazine, published every quarter since 1987, provides a comprehensive range of articles, news and features. Content covers numerous areas in archaeology including science, art, architecture, history, geography, economics, sociology, anthropology, religion and more. The magazine offers readers a broad range of well-researched, lavishly illustrated articles on a range of topics at an accessible level to all, whether it’s a passing or professional interest. Archaeology Ireland is a key reference guide for students, visitors from abroad, those in the field, and all archaeology fans with an interest in Ireland’s archaeological wonders.

All issues of Archaeology Ireland, from the first one in 1987 to the latest quarterly edition, are now available as digital editions with a fully searchable digital archive, creating an invaluable resource of over 120 issues of well-researched and lavishly illustrated articles, as well as over 80 Heritage Guide supplements that study a range of Irish archaeological sites in fine-combed detail.

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A BIT OF A TALE 

Matt Seaver, Graeme Warren and Rena Maguire track the journey of an Irish Iron Age horse bit  

ST CANICE’S, FINGLAS, AND THE HIBERNO-NORSE CHURCHES OF DUBLIN 

Paul Duffy explains how construction dates can be pushed back into the later eleventh century

 

RATHRA,  CO. ROSCOMMON

In this contribution to Folklore Focus Marion Dowd examines the ‘fairy fort’ beliefs around ringforts 

 

VIKING AGE WOMEN CONNECTING IRELAND AND NORWAY 

Patrick Herbage, Aoife O’Shaughnessy, Kristin Armstrong-Oma and Håkon Reiersen give an insight into Irish objects found in Rogaland, Norway

 

THE CHURCH ON THE HILL 

Cormac Bourke examines a medieval lintel at Magherally, Co. Down 

 

SUSTAINABILITY OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SECTOR—THE CASE FOR A SECTORAL EMPLOYMENT ORDER 

James Kyle, Richard Clutterbuck, Clíodhna Ní Lionáin, Niall O’Hora and Jean O’Dowd on how the archaeology branch of Unite aims to set agreed pay standards for archaeologists

 

HISTORICAL DIETARY PATTERNS 

In this contribution to the Know Your Monuments series Muiris O’Sullivan and Liam Downey profile the general food-consumption patterns in Ireland from earliest times and review the relatively low consumption of meat and fish by the population at large

 

DRAGOONHILL EXCAVATIONS 

Ken Wiggins, Liam Coen and Maeve McCormick examine an elevated site chosen for settlement by generations of people over six millennia

 

BALLINALEE STONE STRUCTURE 

Excavations often lead to unanswered questions. Judith Carroll shares the details of one such unusual feature which is still unexplained 

 

THE BARE BONES 

Neolithic chambered cairns: Matt Ritchie presents a very regional view of Neolithic burial habits 

 

IMIRCE: MIGRATION AND IRELAND THROUGH TIME 

Details of the programme for the National Monuments Service 2023 conference

Heritage Guide No. 102: ST FINIAN'S MEDIEVAL CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD, ESKER, LUCAN, CO. DUBLIN
St Finian’s is just one of three extant medieval churches in the Lucan area, each the focus of a parish, in the barony of Newcastle. It is 1km from Lucan village and is said to have been built in the twelfth century. It is a ruined medieval parish church and graveyard, constructed of rough limestone masonry, within a roughly trapezoidal nineteenth-century stone enclosure.  

 

In medieval times St Finian’s held a strategic location on the Slíghe Mhór (the Great Way), the medieval road that crossed the country from Tara to Dublin, and thence to Clonard (of St Finian) and on to Galway. The Slíghe Mhór took advantage here of the stony, elevated esker from which the area derives its name.  

 

St Finian’s church appears to date mainly from the Anglo-Norman period (from the thirteenth century on), with additions or revisions in the sixteenth century.