Drumanagh

The island of Lambay is just off the County Dublin coast close to Drumanagh. Some remains (Roman brooches and decorative metalware) were discovered on the island, which are thought to date to the 1st century AD. The nature of artefacts found there also demonstrated Romano-British trading.

Drumanagh (Irish Droim Meánach) is a headland 20 km north of Dublin, Ireland. It features a 19th century Martello tower and a large (200,000 m²) iron age promontory fort which has produced Roman artefacts. Some archaeologists have suggested the fort was a bridgehead for Roman military campaigns, while others suggest it was a Roman trading colony or a native Irish settlement that traded with Roman Britain.

The site is privately owned and is a Recorded Monument, protected under the Section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act, l994, and by a Preservation Order placed on it in 1977. Although its archaeological importance has been known since the 1950s, when ploughing turned up sherds of Roman samian ware, it has not been subject to archaeological excavation, but numerous artefacts have been dug up by illegal metal detectorists. One such collector attempted to sell a trove of Roman coins and ornaments at Sotheby's in London in the 1980s, which was impounded and deposited in the National Museum of Ireland. Since then, a legal dispute over ownership has prevented the artefacts and their provenance from being discussed publicly.

Characteristics

Drumanagh is nearly 900 m. long and 190 m. wide. The area consists of a small peninsula defended by three rows of parallel ditches on the landward side. It is surrounded on three sides by the Irish sea, showing huge erosion that could have reduced its size to the present 44 acres and may have destroyed evidences of old Roman structures.

History

"Warner believes that Ireland may have been invaded by a force composed of exiled Irish and British adventurers with the support of Roman weapons, training and organisation. This possible invasion and attempted colonization may have been led by a prominent historical figure called Tuathal Techmar. The size of the supposed fort (of Drumanagh) suggests the Romans attempted to control Irish internal politics during the period with a series of military campaigns designed to carve out kingdoms in the country for exiled Irish nobility. Furthermore Warner, it seems, believes that a further Roman military campaign '...led to the establishment of Cashel (from the latin 'castra'), now a key town in Tipperary.'."

Barry Raftery and Gabriel Cooney have suggested that the fort may have been used by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, then Roman governor of Britain, for an invasion of Ireland in AD 82. The Roman historian Tacitus mentions that Agricola entertained an exiled Irish prince, thinking to use him as a pretext for a possible conquest of Ireland. Agricola, says Tacitus, "crossed in the first ship" and defeated peoples unknown to the Romans until then. He does not specify which body of water he crossed, although many scholars believe it was the Clyde or Forth; however, the rest of the chapter exclusively concerns Ireland. Agricola fortified the coast facing Ireland, and Tacitus recalls that his father-in-law often claimed the island could be conquered with a single legion and auxiliaries. This conquest never happened, but some historians believe that the crossing referred to was in fact a military expedition to Ireland.

Vittorio De Martino argues that there was continuous interaction between Roman Britain and Hibernia. A group of burials on Lambay Island, just off the coast near Drumanagh, contained Roman brooches and decorative metalware of a style also found in Roman Britain from the late first century. Indeed, some archeological discoveries inside Ireland, like Roman jewelry and coins at Tara and Clogher, support the possibility of a Roman invasion of Ireland..

See also

• Hibernia
• History of Ireland
• Tuathal Techtmar