Ringforts and a wedge tomb

Ireland has more ringforts than anywhere else in Europe.  Ringforts are stone encampments used primarily in the Iron Age  (800 BC to about 500 AD) but some examples can be found in the early Middle Ages (up to about 1000 AD.) The wedge tomb is much older. I like these thingys...like it better when I can crawl around in them.  Here are a couple that we've seen so far:

Caherconnell ringfort - 8.3.2011

Caherconnell is an exceptionall large ringfort built in around 900-1000 AD.

There's an archaeological class here for a couple of weeks in the summer; this year they are excavating a section of the ringfort where livestock was kept.  (I know what I want to do next summer...I am serious!) 

This was an interior dividing wall at Caherconnell so you didn't have to sleep with your sheep.  Unless you wanted to, of course...

Cahercommaun triple ringfort - 8.9.2011

Cahercommaun was a 1 km hike from the tiny road that ran from Carron to Kilnaboy in the heart of the Burren.  It's a hillfort, which means one side of the fort faces a hill, and it has 3 rings.  And I totally climbed all over it, which was fun!

a view from atop the inner wall over the valley below 

view of the hill that makes up one side of the Cahercommaun ringfort (so it's essentially D-shaped)

Poor Dee Dee.  I keep dragging her to all these remote ringforts...at least she documents when I break the law and sidle over barriers to sniff around the interior of the inner ring.

I got to climb around on this megalithic wedge tomb called Parknabinnia.  Pretty cool to actually touch a piece of ancient history.