page_title: Grianan of Aileach
section_title: Chronology
hierarchical_section_title: Grianan of Aileach / Chronology
caption_attribution_description: English: Grianan of Aileach fort sits atop a beautiful scenic view and is a must see to visitors
context_page_description: The Grianan of Aileach is a hillfort atop the 244 metres high Greenan Mountain at Inishowen in County Donegal, Ireland. The main structure is a stone ringfort, thought to have been built by the Northern Uí Néill, in the sixth or seventh century CE; although there is evidence that the site had been in use before the fort was built. It has been identified as the seat of the Kingdom of Ailech and one of the royal sites of Gaelic Ireland. The wall is about 4.5 metres thick and 5 metres high. Inside it has three terraces, which are linked by steps, and two long passages within it. Originally, there would have been buildings inside the ringfort. Just outside it are the remains of a well and a tumulus.
  By the 12th century, the Kingdom of Ailech had become embattled and lost a fair amount of territory to the invading Normans. According to Irish literature, the ringfort was mostly destroyed by Muirchertach Ua Briain, King of Munster, in 1101. Substantial restoration work was carried out in 1870. Today, the site is an Irish National Monument and a tourist attraction.
context_section_description: It is widely accepted that most ringforts date from the Early Christian period.  Finds from ringforts typically include items which date from the second half of the first millennium: a hand-made, bucket shaped pottery style called 'Souterrain Ware', which uses local clays and can be decorated or undecorated; glass beads; bone, bronze and iron pins; and artefacts of bone and metalwork.  The artefacts, which Dr. Bernard found during his excavation of the cashel interior, seem to correspond to the above list of typical items. Indeed, in a recent publication, Brian Lacy comes up with an exact date for its construction which corresponds with this period.  He argues that Aileach is the name of a specific site in antiquity and also the name of the Cenél nEógain 'homeland' kingdom of Inis Eogian, derived from the place now known as Elaghmore (Aileach Mór) in County Londonderry.  After the decisive battle of Cloítech in 789, when the Cenél nEógain won total control of the over-kingdom of the northern Uí Néill, the successful kings relocated to the Grianán, building it inside the pre-existing prehistoric hillfort as a visual symbol of their new mastery of all the landscape visible from that commanding view. Stout comes to the conclusion that the majority of Ireland's ringforts were occupied and constructed during a three hundred-year period from the beginning of the seventh century to the end of the ninth century AD.
  Lacy concludes that Aileach was inhabited by the northern Ui Néill dynasty from 789 to about 1050.  This was a period when many of the local kings in Ireland were moving to the towns founded by the Vikings or into more important ecclesiastical sites which by this time seemed to have been functioning as towns following the Vikings' model.
caption: Grianan of Aileach fort sits on a hilltop in the Inishowen peninsula
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