Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne

Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne by Geraldine Stout is a wonderful 236 page historical geography of the Boyne Valley covering 7000 years, from prehistory to the twentieth century. The megalithic mounds at Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth are extensively covered.

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The book is the exploration of an outstanding archaeological landscape centred on Newgrange Passage Tomb and its greater environs. In ancient times it was called the Brugh na Boinne. Today this area is designated as a World Heritage Site and is Ireland's first protected Archaeological Park. Its rich fertile soils and south-facing slopes are set in County Meath in the most accessible, low-lying part of Ireland, close to the Irish Sea.

This is where the great prehistoric tomb-building tradition of Atlantic Europe reached its zenith. It is where legend says the foundations of Irish Christianity were laid and is also the home of Ireland's first medieval Cistercian monastery at Mellifont. On the banks of the Boyne in 1690 one of the most important battles in Irish history was fought.

The Bend of the Boyne had a pivotal role to play in Irish history and this is evident in its abundant physical remains, which can be traced among its fields and riverbanks. Through the interpretation of these remains this book presents an understanding of how this landscape was organised and exploited by communities over seven thousand years of settlement. This book draws heavily on the results of an extensive programme of excavation at Knowth, Newgrange and Monknewtown and archaeological survey, which has greatly increased our knowledge of prehistoric societies. Using a wide range of maps, colour photographs and historic as well as new drawings, it traces the gradual evolution of the landscape to the present day. Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne is also concerned with the future of this protected cultural landscape and recommends actions to ensure its protection and preservation.

Geraldine Stout is an archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. She assisted on the excavations at Knowth and Newgrange and has undertaken postgraduate and doctoral research on the Boyne Valley.

Preface and Acknowledgements

In 1993 Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne, also known as Brú na Bóinne, were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This listing affirms the international importance of Newgrange and the pre-eminence of the passage tomb culture in the Boyne Valley. The World Heritage Status was also designated to the Bend of the Boyne in recognition of the continuity of settlement in the area, evident in its wide range of archaeological monuments of prehistoric and historic date. It is a multilayered landscape with many stories to tell. This book is a broad, personal exploration of Newgrange and its environs, gained from years of reading and interpreting its field evidence. Each discovery, however small, has been a source of personal pleasure. This book sets to increase appreciation for, and public enjoyment of, this prized landscape.

I first came to the Boyne Valley as a first-year archaeology student in 1976 to work for George Eogan of the Department of Archaeology at University College Dublin in his excavations at Knowth, and spent the remainder of my undergraduate summers at the site. This was the experience of a lifetime. I worked alongside Heath men, many of them local sheep or cattle farmers, and students from Europe, America and Australia. In those years the mound was a hive of activity, with paving stones of Early Christian houses being exposed on one side, soil-stained sockets of smaller passage tombs appearing on the other, the mixed debris of Early Bronze Age Beaker settlements around the back, and the mortared walls of a medieval stone building being revealed on the top. Strip by strip the site was trowelled back and forward and as each tantalising pit or stone setting appeared it was brushed clean, surveyed using line, bubble level and tapes and recorded in the utmost detail.

At the end of each day trays of finds would be brought into the finds hut for registering and numbering. They would contain a range of artefacts from different eras: bronze pins, flint scrapers, glazed pottery or perhaps a spindle whorl or corroded iron knife from one of the houses. The site had witnessed many transformations over five millennia, and it reflected in microcosm the prehistory and history of the Boyne Valley, indeed of Ireland itself. All was painstakingly recorded so that one day an accurate interpretation of this site could be presented to the public. In 2002, after forty years of excavation and research, Knowth passage tomb is open to the public and guides tell the stories that revealed themselves to us over those years.

Drawing on the disciplines of archaeology and historical geography, this book documents the evolution of this unique Irish landscape. It explores natural and cultural elements of its make-up, and considers the issues involved in its protection. This study complements the Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape, published in 1997, and will be one of a landscape series that will look in detail at different regions in Ireland.

I wish to record my thanks to many individuals, organisations, friends and family for their assistance in preparing this publication: Professor George Eogan, University College Dublin, for allowing me to assist on his excavations at Knowth as an undergraduate; the late Leo Swan, who introduced me to the delights of henge monuments and copper-fastened my links with the Boyne and the Cairbre family, who have given me a great deal of encouragement and help over many a part in their justly famous Drogheda hostelry. I trust that the late Caitlín Bean Uí Chairbre would have been pleased with this publication.

Thanks to all my colleagues at Dúchas, the Heritage Service, for their encouragement and financial support: in particular David Sweetman, Chief Archaeologist, for allowing me to assist on his excavations at Newgrange and approving the career break necessary to complete this work; Dave Fadden, Martin Luddy and Eugene Keane for their support; archaeologists including Con Manning, Victor Buckley, Michael Moore, Eamonn Cody, Paul Walsh, Finbar Moore, Barry O’Reilly and Michael Higginbottom (architect), the last two of whom advised on vernacular architecture; Senior Architect Willie Cumming, who advised on conservation; archaeologist and editor Tom Condit; Muiris de Buitléir and Rob Ovington in GIS; and librarian Valerie Ingram and her staff. I am greatly indebted to the staff in the Photographic Section in Dúchas, especially Senior Photographer Con Brogan for his wonderful photographs which are a major contribution to this publication; John Scarry for photographing archival material; and Anthony Roche, photo-archivist, for his endless patience and generosity. Tom Byrne also generously supplied his photography.

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of staff in numerous institutions: the National Library; the National Museum, especially Mary Cahill and Valerie Dowling of its Photographic Section; the National Archives, especially Aideen Ireland; the Royal Irish Academy, especially Siobhán O Rafferty and Peter Harbison; the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland; the Traditional Music Archive; the Farm Development Service, Navan, County Meath; the County Museum, Dundalk, especially Martin Clarke, museum technician; Drogheda Public Library; Jane Beattie of the James Adams Salesrooms; David Byrne, Eastern Regional Fisheries Board; and Matthew Parks of the Geological Survey of Ireland for providing access to the wonderfully indexed collection of fossils. Thanks to Michael Lynan and the ever-friendly staff at Photo-Typeset for work of such high standard.

My warmest thanks to my many friends in the Boyne Valley for their help and hospitality in particular Claidhbh Ó Gibne, who showed me how to make a Boyne Coracle, his wife Sinéad and his brothers Gearóid and Brian; Séan and Pauline Fullam of Stalleen for their hospitality; Breda Tuite of Tullyallen for helpful discussions on the Battle of the Boyne; Barry Flood of Rossnaree, who accompanied me on a tour of the Boyne fish weirs; Hugh Gough MMCC for local history on Rossnaree; my old friend and colleague Kieran Campbell for such valuable information and photographs; local poet Séan Connolly; Anne-Marie Moroney for many discussions on Dowth; local artists Ray Balfe and Richard Moore; Séan Corcoran and Gerry Cullen for information on local songs; Elizabeth Addison of Glebe House; and Michael ‘Mulch’ O’Reilly of Drogheda, who assisted in the survey of pillboxes along the Boyne and shares his wonderful enthusiasm for the Boyne with all he comes in contact with. I would especially like to thank Clare Tufty, Manager of the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre, who has made a reality of the centre’s name by putting it at the core of activities organised in the Bend of the Boyne. Thanks also to Leontia Lenehan and Pauline Moore in the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre for their warm hospitality.

Thanks to fellow researchers who make the pursuit of knowledge a pursuit of fun and friendship as well: Cristóir Mac Cárthaigh, Department of Folklore, and Gabriel Cooney, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin; Liam Mac Mathúna, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra who advised on Dindshenchas Érenn; Michael Ó Siocru, Department of History, University of Aberdeen; Mark Clinton; Lianda D’Auria; Anthony Lynch, who assisted me with translations of Latin sources; Billy Colfer for helpful discussions on Cistercian settlement and watercolouring of drawings; Petra Coffey for information on the Du Noyer drawings; William Nolan, Department of Geography, for providing access to unpublished research at University College Dublin; William Jenkinson, who allowed me to consult his unpublished research on the Boyne Valley; Hugh Carey, who gave me access to his unpublished thesis on Norman Meath; and Magda Loeber and Rolf Loeber for their regular parcels of valuable information and support. Thanks to Paul Kerrigan for drawings of Dowth powerhouse and advice on pillboxes. I would like to thank the staff in the Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin, where I presented the thesis which was the basis of this book: especially Eileen Russell, Secretary Emeritus; Richard Haworth, Freeman Librarian; Terry Dunne; and Mark Hennessey. Thanks also to Declan Burke, Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin, for photographing the fossils; and Bernard Meehan, the Keeper of Manuscripts. The index was expertly compiled by Yann Kelly.

My extended family suffered great neglect during the preparation of this publication and I am deeply grateful to them for their patience. Thanks in particular to my sister Marian and her family who have taken such good care of my children, and to my sister Loretta Lacey who provided much needed funding. I would especially like to thank my husband Matthew and daughters Nóra and Helen for their great tolerance. Matthew also designed the book, edited and typeset the text, and prepared the maps and illustrations.

I would like to especially acknowledge the help of my mentor and friend Kevin Whelan, director of the Keough-Notre Dame Centre, who critically read and reread drafts of this publication. His encouragement was indispensable. I am also extremely grateful to my doctoral supervisor, F.H.A. Aalen, Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin, for his years of support for this project. His enthusiasm for landscape conservation has been a great inspiration to my own research. Finally I would like to thank my publisher Cork University Press, in particular Sara Wilbourne for her faith in me and the Boyne Valley.

Geraldine Stout - Author.

Review by Anthony Murphy

"Every bright wonder hath adorned thee, O clear shining plain with scores of hosts, O lucent land of grass and waggons, O virgin mead of birds and islands!"

During last summer, in a field in the Boyne Valley, archaeologist Geraldine Stout and her team unearthed a rare gold artefact. It turned out to be part of a brooch dating from the Anglo-Saxon period, and was yet more evidence of the rich and varied history of the Brú na Bóinne area.

The gold was found at a ringfort near Knowth, and the dig undertaken by Dr Stout was the latest in a series of archaeological investigations in the Boyne Valley in which she has been involved. Previously, she had worked on excavations at the great passage mounds at Newgrange and Knowth, and in 1991 she was the author of an extensive paper on the henge monuments of the Boyne region.

Her immense experience as an archaeologist and her extensive knowledge of the landscape of the Boyne Valley is brought to bear in what is her largest printed work to date, the book "Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne", which has just been published by Cork University Press.

Dr Geraldine Stout knows every field in the Brú na Bóinne heritage area like the back of her hand.

And she is very familiar with the long, varied and rich history of Ireland's most important heritage area, from the primitive days of hunter gatherers in the Mesolithic, through the glorious mound-building phase of the Neolithic, through the great ceremonial and monumental Bronze Age, on into the turbulent Iron Age, and then beyond into history, and the arrival of Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings and the Normans, and the legacy of the great farming community of the Cistercians at Mellifont, and even the crucial battle in the shallow waters of the Boyne in 1690 which pitted Jacobite against Williamite in the fight which would forge Ireland's political fate.

For this is just a glimpse at the huge breadth of the history of the Bend of the Boyne, and is a mere summary of the many subjects touched upon in Dr Stout's remarkable work.

Here is an author who draws on many sources, academic and non-academic, archaeological and non-archaeological, embracing the artistic, poetic, literary, and creative ideologies of the people she has met on her journey, who, like her, share a love for the Boyne and its history.

One of the most impressive aspects of 'Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne' is its tremendous visual impact. Before we even get to the opening words of the first chapter, there is a huge two-page map detailing all the sites, ancient and historic, in the area.

The text is complemented at all times by a rich wealth of visual aids. There are wonderful photographs, including stunning aerial shots from the Dúchas archives along with pictures from inside Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, photographs of finds and artefacts, and a host of others from pictures of Boyne curraghs to Boyne battle graves and wooden penal crosses.

The whole volume is enriched with a vast array of maps and illustrations, which were prepared by Geraldine's husband, Matthew Stout. At all times, even to those wholly unfamiliar with the territory and subject matter, the visual aids are hugely helpful and give the reader a good sense of direction.

'The Bend of the Boyne' is a breath of fresh air in terms of its appeal. The text, although written by an archaeologist, is obviously aimed for the general reader. It is light enough to be understood by most people, and heavy enough to be still considered as a serious academic work.

We are taken on a wonderful journey along the timeline of history, and learn many interesting things on the way.

We are told the earliest conclusive evidence for human activity in this area is at Knowth, where there was a distinct phase of activity from about 3900BC to 3500BC. We are told there are over 600 decorated stones in the Boyne, representing two-thirds of all megalithic art in Europe.

The remains of one hundred people were found in the eastern tomb of Knowth, adults and children, most of whom were cremated before being deposited in the tomb.

Dr Stout also undertakes a very interesting study of place names in Brú na Bóinne from the ancient texts of Dindshenchas Erenn. In this conjectural study some of the sites in and around Newgrange are given interesting names, including Finn's seat and Caiseal nOengusa.

We learn too that there is some doubt over whether Saint Patrick lit his famous paschal fire on the Hill of Slane and there is some suggestion he could have lit the fire in the Bend of the Boyne.

There are little gems of information to be found throughout the book, and some very interesting documents are brought to light, such as Bernard Scale's map of the Caldwell Estate from 1766, Lhwyd's survey of Newgrange, the first known plan of the tomb, and even a public notice from 1882 detailing the prosecution of a person for defacing the Newgrange monument.

The book has received favourable reviews so far. Dr Julian Richards from BBC's 'Meet the Ancestors', has said: 'This is a wonderful publication - and one that makes me profoundly jealous as it is the sort of book that I would like to have written about Stonehenge and its landscape. I have to admit though, that Newgrange beats Stonehenge hands down when the cultural diversity of their respective landscapes are considered.'

From flax cultivation to currach making to emergency pillboxes to beaker pottery, this is a real 'everything you ever wanted to know' guide to the Boyne Valley. And it is much more besides.

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