Timoney added that in reappraising Knoxspark, Mr. "Other than that, mention of Vikings on the mainland of County Sligo is limited to perhaps two obscure references which were only brought to my attention in the last three months," he said. Timoney said the Viking raids in 807 on Inishmurray are frequently cited as having been one of the first along the west coast of Ireland The Vikings were Norse or Scandinavian explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonised wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. Kelly, having examined the Knoxspark site and the excavation report, has reinterpreted the site as that of a Viking longphort.Īmong the many intriguing questions is whether the Vikings might have been after lead or silver deposits in the area. His interpretation of Knoxspark was that is was a late prehistoric site with some 10th century dates for a burial and one burial with an iron spearhead, something that would not be in a Christian burial at that time. In that publication, Mount contributed a major paper on the excavation. Timoney, was published by Sligo Field Club. In 2002, "A Celebration of Sligo, First Essays for Sligo Field Club", edited by Mr. In 1991, an archaeological assessment of the route for the Collooney-Ballisodare bypass carried out by Paula Harvey and Tom Condit, of the Sites and Monuments Record Office, recognised an oddity at Knoxspark.Īn excavation requirement was included in permission for the project and in 1994, excavations were carried out by Charles Mount. "The recent reinterpretation of the Knoxspark site as a Viking longphort will have farreaching implications for our understanding of this and later periods in County Sligo," Mr. Timoney, a Past President of Sligo Field Club. Kelly's reinterpretation of the site "is a major addition to our knowledge of Sligo's past," according to local research archaeologist, Martin A. It had previously been thought that the site at Knoxspark, which was excavated prior to construction of the Collooney/Ballisodare bypass, was an inland promontory fort or late prehistoric site with artifacts from later dates. Interestingly, "long" is also the Irish word for ship. The word "longphort" is thought to have been invented by Irish monks from the Latin words "longus", meaning boat or ship, and "portus", meaning harbour. They were easily defended, sheltered and provided quick access to the sea, with boats sufficiently small to be carried over rapids. Kelly, referring to what is another significant Viking site in the country.Ī longphort was an enclosure or fortress, usually built along rivers, and often at a tributary, to serve as protected camps for raiding parties. "I would have to say that Knoxspark is as important as Woodstown in Waterford," said Mr. Seán Duffy FTCD is chairman of the Friends of Medieval Dublin and senior lecturer in medieval history at Trinity College Dublin.A weekly update on Sligo's leading stories in news and sport, straight to your inboxĮnter email address This field is required Sign Up Also included is Andrew McDonald’s assessment of the effects on Dublin–Manx relations of the English conquest of Ireland in the late 12th century. Alan Fletcher presents an overview of the annals and chronicles surviving from the later-medieval city, Raymond Gillespie, by shedding light on the ‘City Chronicle’, considers the way Dubliners viewed themselves in the 15th and 16th centuries, and Bernadette Cunningham explores the portrayal of later-medieval Dublin in the annals from Gaelic Ireland. Linzi Simpson suggests that the graveyard known as Bully’s Acre may have been part of the early medieval monastery of Kilmainham, Nessa Walsh examines the pre-Romanesque churches of Dublin, while Michael Gibbons offers a reassessment of the relationship between the 9th-century Viking longphort and the origins of urbanization in Ireland. This 8th volume of proceedings of the annual Friends of Medieval Dublin Symposium contains reports on recent archaeological excavations: Edmund O’Donovan’s excavation at Golden Lane produced early Viking burials, while Claire Walsh found traces of an early pre-Viking roadway nearby at Chancery Lane, and Roseanne Meenan reports on investigations in Stephen Street Lower.
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