A
promontory fort is a
defensive structureFortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defense in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
located above a steep cliff, often only connected to the mainland by a small neck of land, thus utilizing the topography to reduce the ramparts needed. Although their dating is problematic, most seem to date to the
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
. They are mainly found in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
, the
Orkney IslandsOrkney, also known as the Orkney Islands, , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated 10 miles north of the coast of Caithness...
, the
Isle of ManThe Isle of Man , or Mann , is a self-governing British Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Britain and Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Crown is represented by a Lieutenant Governor...
and
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
.
Only a few Irish promontory forts have been excavated and most date to the
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
, though some, like Dunbeg (
County KerryCounty Kerry is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Munster. Kerry is the fifth largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 14th largest in terms of population...
) might have originated in the
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
.
A
promontory fort is a
defensive structureFortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defense in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
located above a steep cliff, often only connected to the mainland by a small neck of land, thus utilizing the topography to reduce the ramparts needed. Although their dating is problematic, most seem to date to the
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
. They are mainly found in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
, the
Orkney IslandsOrkney, also known as the Orkney Islands, , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated 10 miles north of the coast of Caithness...
, the
Isle of ManThe Isle of Man , or Mann , is a self-governing British Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Britain and Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Crown is represented by a Lieutenant Governor...
and
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
.
Ireland
Only a few Irish promontory forts have been excavated and most date to the
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
, though some, like Dunbeg (
County KerryCounty Kerry is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Munster. Kerry is the fifth largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 14th largest in terms of population...
) might have originated in the
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
. Others, like
Dalkey IslandDalkey Island is an uninhabited island situated about 16 km south of Dublin, near the village of Dalkey, 3 km south of Dún Laoghaire harbour.-Location, situation and access:...
(
County DublinCounty Dublin , or more correctly today the Dublin Region , is the area that contains the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland as well as the largest city on the island of Ireland; and the modern counties of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. The Dublin Regional Authority is the...
) contain imported Eastern Mediterranean
potteryPottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. Major types of pottery include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The places where such wares are made are called potteries. Pottery is one of the oldest human technologies and art-forms, and remains a major industry today...
and have been reoccupied and changed in the early medieval period. Dunbeg contains an early medieval
corbelIn architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
led stone hut (
clochanA Clochán is dry-stone hut with a corbelled roof, dating from the early Middle Ages or earlier. Most archaeologists think these structures were built on the southwestern coast of Ireland since the Bronze Age. They are most commonly round beehive huts, but rectangular plans are known as well. Most...
).
Isle of Man
On the Isle of Man promontory forts are found particularly on the rocky slate headlands of the south. Four out of more than 20 have been excavated and several, especially in
SantonSanton is a parish of the Isle of Man. It has an area of approximately eight square miles and is the island's smallest parish, located in the sheading of Middle which is composed of the parishes of Braddan, Marown and Santon. Currently the Captain of the Parish is Donald Gelling.The parish church...
, can be visited using the
Raad Ny Foillan is a long distance footpath in the Isle of Man.-Route and history:The starts and finishes at the Millennium Bridge over Douglas Harbour...
coastal footpath. All have a
rampartA defensive wall is a fortification used to defend a city or settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements...
on their vulnerable landward side, and excavations at
Cronk ny MerriuCronk ny Merriu is one of the remains of promontory forts in the Isle of Man. Close to Port Grenaugh, this site dates back almost 2,000 years. The bank and ditch of Iron Age date created a defensive promontory fort at Cronk ny Merriu...
have shown that access to the fort was via a strongly-built gate.
The
ScandinaviansScandinavians are a group of Germanic peoples, inhabiting Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway and Sweden, as well as Iceland and the Faroe Islands, as well as Finland Swedes in Finland, as well as descendants in many other countries, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States. The...
who arrived in Mann in the eighth and ninth centuries AD sometimes re-used these Iron Age promontory forts, often obliterating the old domestic quarters with their characteristic rectangular houses; the fine example at Cronk ny Merriu has been used as the basis of the reconstruction in the House of Manannan museum in
Peel||-||-||-|Peel is a town on the Isle of Man, in the parish of German. It is often called the only "city" because it is the home of the island's cathedral. It is the third largest town on the island after Douglas and Ramsey and the fourth largest settlement as Onchan has the second largest...
.
Cornwall
Promontory forts can be found all along the coast of
PenwithPenwith was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, whose council was based in Penzance. The district covered all of the Penwith peninsula, the toe-like promontory of land at the western end of Cornwall and which included an area of land to the east that fell outside the...
. Maen Castle, near to
Land's EndLand's End is a headland on the Penwith peninsula, located near Penzance in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly point of the English mainland; the westernmost point of the island of Great Britain as a whole is Corrachadh Mòr, Ardnamurchan, Scotland which is farther west...
is one of the oldest, having been dated to around 500 BC. They are also found in other districts, e.g.
The RumpsThe Rumps is a twin-headland promontory at the north-east corner of Pentire Head in north Cornwall, United Kingdom.The promontory is formed from hard basaltic rock and projects north into the Atlantic Ocean. Its headlands lie east-to-west...
near Padstow and
Dodman PointDodman Point is a high headland near Mevagissey, Cornwall. It was once an Iron Age promontory fort. At its seaward end is a large granite cross, erected to help protect shipping from this headland. It is mentioned in the shanty Spanish Ladies....
.
Orkney
A number of promontory forts exist in ruined form on the Orkney Mainland and some of the other islands of the Orkney group. On the Orkney Mainland, Gurness is a well preserved
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
brochA Broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
positioned on
Eynhallow SoundEynhallow Sound is a seaway lying between Mainland Orkney and the island of Rousay in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. The tidal indraught is "scarcely felt beyond a line joining Costa Head and the Reef of Quendale". An Iron Age broch, Gurness, has a strategic outlook over the Eynhallow Sound....
. On Shapinsay, an island to the north of the Mainland, there is the Broch of Burroughston.
'
North Africa
Mogador is an example of a promontory fort in
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
on the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
coast. The fort was established by the
PhoeniciaPhoenicia what is now modern day Lebanon, was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and Palestine...
ns in the first millennium BC. (Hogan, 2007)
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