#hillfort

Before the Day Lets Go

An evening view across Figsbury Ring in Wiltshire, where the last light settled over the trees and open countryside.

I took this photograph more than a decade ago.

I can't remember what I was thinking about that evening, or where I was supposed to be next. Most of the details have disappeared with time.

What remains is the light.

The way it settled across the field. The shape of those trees standing together against the horizon. The feeling that there was nowhere else I needed to be for a few quiet minutes.

Photographs often become records of things we didn't realise we were trying to keep. Years later, they bring back a mood before they bring back a memory.

I don't remember the day.

I remember how it felt.

The Grianán of Aileach sometimes anglicised as Greenan Ely or, locally, as Greenan Fort, is a hillfort atop the 244 metres (801 ft) high Greenan Mountain at Burt on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland. The main structure is a 19th-century reconstruction of 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 (15 ft) thick and 5 metres (16 ft) 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.

According to Tony Nugent, the Grianan was also used as a Mass rock during the anti-Catholic religious persecution that began under Henry VIII and ended only with Catholic Emancipation in 1829.

Substantial restoration work was carried out in 1870. Today, the site is protected as a national monument and is a tourist attraction.

Maiden Castle is one of the largest and most complex Iron Age hillforts in Britain. Its vast multiple ramparts enclose an area the size of 50 football pitches, and the site was home to several hundred people in the Iron Age (800 BC–AD 43).

Excavations have discovered a complex sequence of occupation, beginning over 6,000 years ago. In the early Neolithic period, the hilltop was cleared of woodland and an oval enclosure of two segmented ditches was built on the eastern plateau. This causewayed enclosure, so-called because of the gaps between the ditches, was one of the earliest types of monuments in Britain.

After a period of reduced activity, the first hillfort was constructed in the early Iron Age. Enclosed by a single rampart, it was built on top of the earlier enclosure. The fort was later extended to the west to enclose more than double the original area. Throughout this period, extra ramparts were added and the inner rampart was heightened. The entrances to the fort became increasingly complex as more ramparts were added and gateways were redesigned.

Dundurn Hillfort and St Fillans Chapel

I love coming back to this hillfort because the scenery here is just so breath-taking with the mountains rising up on all sides. The dusting of snow on the tops made it even more scenic. Feral goats roam this area (likely descendants of those abandoned during the Highland Clearances) and funnily enough, there was one at the top keeping an eye on us while indulging in some of the spring greens. There is a graveyard nearby with a ruined chapel dedicated to Saint Fillans. While I was surveying Dundurn with a drone, one of the Red Kites (I'm sure I saw at least two) came to have a closer inspection of this very strange and noisy new bird in the sky. Quite a few birds have checked out the drone so far, but luckily none of them ever tried to attack it. I'm sure they can tell that it's not a bird. It must be such a strange sight to them. 

Castro de Baroña (fotos editadas), 20-08-22