The island of Ireland is a land as rich in  the number of prehistoric forts as it's neighbour to the east. Indeed it has many fine hillforts, from the south to the north that dot this island, with good regularity. Though again, it can depend on what you regard as a hillfort, though Ireland does contain other prehistoric defensive sites such as raths or ringforts.

The rich folklore, and transcribed mythology of the pre-Christian era are regarded by many as the best "window on the Iron Age" we have, when fused with what was discovered by archaeologists and historians. The stories of cattle raids, and warbands, and warriors, are a scene that are great for the imagination when envisoned with the Irish and British forts of the time.

Some of the hillforts were used from the Bronze Age, some in the Iron Age and some all the way into what in Britain used to be called the Dark Ages, though I still use that term, as I think it is just a term, so why not use it, and what in Ireland was more associated with the era of the coming of Christianity.

Indeed some had uses into the second millenium, often just as ceremonial sites, and more often as sites for new castles to sit atop of either Norman invaders, or Irish kings.

The best include Dún Aonghasa, a hillfort with half of it hanging into the sea, a stunningly romantic vision that graces many a tourist brochure or hillfort literature. It has legends that it was built by one of the mythical or semi mythical peoples of Ancient Ireland, in the 2nd Century BC, but excavations have revealed evidence of it's use as a site in both the Bronze Age, 1100 BC, and with alterations in the middle of the Iron Age, five hundred BC. The fact that it sits out on the far west of Ireland, on the Aran Islands, adds to it's mystique.  

Plus Navan, or Emain Macha hillfort in the North, said by most to have been likely a quite ceremonial, even religious centre of the ancient kingdoms of Ulster. With archaeologists having found there evidence of all sorts of large huts, some have speculated these to have been temples, or headquarters for powerful groups. Indeed a number of forts in Ireland had longstanding ritual and ceremonial activities carried out on them into the historical period. Another fine example of that would be on the Hill of Tara, in Leinster, where horse races and bonfires were held according to legend along with the inauguration of certain ancient and even medieval Irish kings. The ceremonial site sits within a larger Iron Age hillfort, and a stone there is mixed with legends of Pre Christian goddesses and power.

More so though hillforts were about the defensive or possibly even power aspects of their military aspects, and in this they were a major part of the society of the time.

An example of a hillfort that became a Norman stronghold, would be the Rock of Dunamase, which was being used a hillfort in the 9th Century, but then was used by Medieval Norman barons as a site for a Hiberno Norman power. It sitting above the local countryside, on a high outcrop, just like hillforts of old.

The finest legend I know of to do with Ireland, is of there being a fort of bronze pallisades, which is a brilliant embelishment to imagine how strong some hillforts would have been seen to be. In legens it is where there are treasures which the citadel protects.

I must add that many hillforts and other forts in Ireland, that day to day would have been forified villages, amid a land, of raths, crannogs and all sorts of structures to defend the locals in a time like this. It can not have been the case that it was just every day, and every minute, there were great times of peace as indicated by the lives recorded by archaology and the Irish myths, but forts were certainly there for a reason, which of course was a need to protect, or enforce power. So as I say the picture to imagine is a farming society, enlivened by seasonal festivals, such as those celebrating the new seasons, and harvests, with leaders like kings, warbands, and of course the Pagan druids, with great bards recording the stories of them in oral form for posterity, that were later transcribed by Christian orders. Ironically the druids it seems do seem to have had roles and power, similar in a form of continuence of power with the Christian church, who were certainly in the early Christian era their sworn opposites. There is little chance there was a continuance of manpower, but it is amazing how the Ireland of Iron Age times, had some levels of continuence with medieval Ireland. Then again, to be honest that is the case across Europe, as the Christian church in many cases acquired Pagan sites and Pagan power, from ancient Rome, to old Pagan temples that became churches, whether the churches today, are Catholic, or Protestant, or for that matter, other branches of Christianity. The strongest continuance across Europe was the farming, that had adorable similarities from the Bronze Age, to the 19th century, there were big differences between the start and the finish, new crops and methods, but the similarities and even some of the various tools in normal life, like certain kinds of implement for other day to day activities other than farming, were notable.   

My story by the way does enter into Ireland, and sees some of the fascinating mythology, and architecture that existed at the time.

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Copied from my fun facts page, :

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Biggest hillforts in Ireland,

The late Bronze Age site of Mooghaun, County Clare. is listed as being 11 hectares.

But the biggest hillfort in western Ireland is Ballylin Hillfort, at 20.5 hectares,, it is in County Limerick. Munster. 

Another large one is Dun Ailnne at 15 hectares.

The biggest hillforts though are in the Batinglass Hillfort Cluster in the Wicklow Mountains of Leinster, Eastern Ireland. 

These include the great amount of hillforts locale to this zone. Indeed it includes, Tinoran Hillfort, or Tinoranhill which hits 84 hectares with it's enclosures. It from the Bronze or Iron Age, has a strong claim to be the largest hillfort in Ireland, but it has no properly continual rings as of the effects of forestry work. 

Then the largest hillforts in Ireland is Brusseltown Ring at 32 hectares which sits next to 409 above sea level, Spinans Hill, a 11 hectares hillfort, These 2 sites are then further enclosed by a ring called the Spinans Hill - Brusseltown Ring complex or Spinans Hill 2, which surrounds 131 hectares. Tinoran is barely a few miles from the complex, which is why some call this area the Hillfort capital of Ireland. The sites are not as clear and stand out to look at as many other sites in Ireland from this era, which is why many list some of the smaller forts listed above in this block of paragraphs as the largest hillfort in Ireland. 

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I better add, some see Tinoran as possibly Iron or Bronze Age, it seems Bronze Age is a strong possible. 

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