page_title: Macroom
section_title: Pre-Christian
hierarchical_section_title: Macroom / History / Pre-Christian
caption_attribution_description: View of Knocknakilla
context_page_description: Macroom is a market town in County Cork, Ireland which formed in the valley of the River Sullane, about halfway between Cork city and Killarney. Its Irish Gaelic may translate as "meeting place of followers of the god Crom" or "crooked oak", the latter a reference to a large oak tree that apparently grew in the town-square during the reign of King John. Its population has grown and receded over the centuries as it went through periods of war, famine and workhouses, forced emigration and intermittent prosperity. The 2016 census recorded an urban population of 3,765 people. Macroom is part of the Cork North-West.
  Macroom began as a meeting place for the Druids of Munster. It is first mentioned is in 6th-century records, and the immediate area hosted a major battle c. 987 involving the Irish king Brian Boru. During the middle ages, the town was invaded by a succession of warring clans, including the Murcheatach Uí Briain and Richard de Cogan families. In the early modern period the MacCarthy's took control and later the area found prosperity via milling. The MacCarthys built a series of tower houses, many of which survive.
context_section_description: Evidence of the human activity in the area survives from pre-history, especially the many Iron Age burial monuments; the area is unusually rich with standing stones, dolmens and stone circles. Macroom seems to have been a centre for Bardic conventions and a base for the Druids of Munster.
  The first historical reference to Macroom dates from the 6th century, when the townland was known as Achad Dorbchon and held within the kingdom of Muscraighe Mitine. The Eóganachta were then the dominant clan of Munster; they held kingdoms from Muscraighe Mitine to the midlands town of Birr. At some point, they were replaced by the Uí Floinn, who commissioned a castle in Macroom so as to establish Raithleann as capital of Muskerry.
caption: The area around Macroom is perhaps one of the richest areas in the world in Stone Age megaliths. This standing stone is part of a 3500-year-old complex in Knocknakilla between Macroom and Millstreet
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