The rectangular enclosure on top of the mound actually dates from the 12th century, but in this case has been reimagined as an earlier working farm. This is then surrounded by houses, metalworking sites and souterrains (appearing as circles). Further metalworking sites can be seen well away from the mound in the foreground and on the far left. The main settlement cluster of houses can be found near the tomb entrance in the right foreground; these were built over the location of the earlier defensive ditch which had silted up by this time. This illustration is based on Figure 4.1 ‘General location plan of tenth-eleventh century features’ found on record ME019-030060- on the National Monuments Service database.
Originally constructed during the Neolithic period (New Stone Age), the great passage tomb of Knowth near Newgrange was one of the most significant ceremonial monuments in prehistoric Ireland. Following its construction around 3200 BC, the site appears to have seen relatively little activity for almost two thousand years before being reused as a burial place during the Iron Age in the 1st century BC.
Knowth entered a new phase of importance during the early medieval period. In the late 7th or early 8th century, two substantial ditches were excavated around the monument, one encircling the base of the mound and another surrounding its summit.¹ These earthworks transformed the ancient tomb into a prominent enclosed centre. Together with high-status artefacts, including brooches, and the large quantities of animal bone recovered from the ditches, they suggest that the mound was being used for assemblies, trading or royal inaugurations.2 The works may have been undertaken by the Gailenga people, who are recorded as holding the area until around AD 800, when they were displaced by the Uí Chonaing branch of the Síl nÁedo Sláine.3
Following their takeover, the Uí Chonaing established Knowth, known in Irish as Cnogba, as the royal centre of North Brega. Their rise coincided with the arrival of the Vikings in Ireland and the political changes that followed. In AD 850, Cináed mac Conaing, King of Cnogba, formed an alliance with the Norse of Dublin in rebellion against the Clann Cholmáin dynasty of Mide.4 This marked one of the earliest recorded political alliances between a Gaelic ruler and the Vikings. The rebellion ultimately failed, and Cináed was later captured and drowned.
During the 9th and 10th centuries, Knowth developed into a thriving royal settlement. The growth of North Brega continued into the 10th century, culminating in Congalach Cnogba restoring the High Kingship to the Síl nÁedo Sláine, a position they had not held in almost 200 years. Congalach followed this by sacking Dublin in AD 944,5 uniting the armies of Mide and Brega in AD 950,6 and leading a major campaign against Munster the following year.7 Congalach was the last great king of Cnogba and died in an ambush in AD 956 shortly after subduing Leinster.8
Excavations have revealed the remains of fifteen houses with stone foundations and five metalworking sites, indicating a substantial settlement and centre of craft production.9 Unlike many contemporary royal sites, there is no evidence for a surrounding palisade wall or ditch. Instead, the occupants relied on nine souterrains built on and around the mound for protection. There were also two strategically located forts, one to the north and another on a ridge to the south overlooking the Boyne River. These would have defended the approaches to the site and may have been occupied by members of the ruling dynasty.10
By the 11th century, the power of the kings of Cnogba had declined. Knowth was granted to the Cistercian order in AD 1157, a grant probably made by the new leading regional power, Tiernán O’Rourke of Bréifne. A short time later, during Hugh de Lacy’s conquest of Meath in the 12th century, the ancient mound was converted into a Norman motte.11
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References
- F. H. A. Aalen, Kevin Whelan and Matthew Stout, Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape (Cork, 1997), pp. 303–304
- Kerri Cleary, ‘Medieval Knowth’ in Helena King (ed.) Knowth (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2024) pp. 81-82
- Geraldine Stout, Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne (Cork, 2002), p. 78
- Thomas Bartlett and Keith Jeffery, A Military History of Ireland (Cambridge, 1996), p. 47
- John Haywood, Northmen: The Viking Saga, AD 793–1241 (New York, 2016), p. 152
- Catherine Swift, ‘The early history of Knowth’ in F.J. Byrne, W. Jenkins, G. Kenny, C. Swift (eds), Excavations at Knowth vol. 4: Historical Knowth and its Hinterland (Dublin, 2008), p. 27
- Swift, ‘The early history of Knowth’, p. 27
- Annals of Ulster, U956.3, available at https://celt.ucc.ie/ (accessed 11 June 2022)
- George Eogan, Excavations at Knowth vol. 5: The Archaeology of Knowth in the First and Second Millennia AD (Dublin, 2012), p. 85
- T. M. Charles-Edwards, Early Christian Ireland (Cambridge, 2004), p. 54
- Nancy Edwards, The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland (London & New York, 2006), p. 44