Ceremonial enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

The venue of Óenach Tailten – the fair of Tailten – is perhaps the only closely located royal assembly place in the country. It is on a gentle SW-facing slope extending from the top of a NW-SE ridge in Oristown (Baile Orthaí) in the Meath Gaeltacht of Baile Ghib down to the NW-SE River Blackwater and the low N-S ridge of Teltown (Tailtin) in a southward loop of the river. Its boundaries would have been porous, but it lay between the ceremonial enclosures of Rath Dubh (ME017-027----) in the west and Rath Airthir (ME017-033----) at the E extremity.
In Irish mythology Tailtiu was the wife of Eochaid Mac Eirc, the last king of the Fir Bolg, and subsequently of Eochaidh Garbh, king of the Tuatha dé Danann, who had defeated Mac Eirc at the Battle of Moytura. The river was anciently called Sele and its valley was known as Coill Chuan – the wood of Cuan, which Tailtiu cleared within a year of the battle but she died from her exertions and is buried at Tailten. Her foster-son, the god Lugh, instituted a festival of games in her memory, which were held annually over one or four weeks at the beginning of the harvest in July - August when a truce was to be observed. A mythological battle followed about a hundred years later which was won by the Milesians, the last mythical invaders of Ireland and the supposed ancestors of the Gaels, who took over the Óenach. Other mythical battles occurred here in the course of the Táin Bó Chuailgne, and it also features in tales of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the Fianna. (MacNeill 1962, 320-5; Wilde 1849, 150)
Legend also relates how Coirpre, a brother of King Laoighre, rejected St Patrick’s holy men while he was presiding over the festival. In response Patrick declared that Coirpre would have no royal descendants and that the river would henceforth have no salmon (Herity 2001, 6). In contrast Coirpre’s brother, Conall, gave Patrick the site of Donaghpatrick church (ME017-034006-) and was blessed by the saint (Swift 2000, 25). Saint Kieran of Clonmacnoise is said to have overseen the games on one occasion with Diarmaid Mac Cerbhaill, progenitor of the Clan Colman branch of the Uí Néill kings of Meath, which is unlikely (Binchy 1958, 123). However, the connection between the royal sovereignty of the Úi Néill and the games at Tailten, which may have been held on royal demesne land (Swift 2000, 28-9), was being established with the approval of the Church, and all under the sway of Uí Néill would be expected to attend at a high level (Binchy 1958, 117). St Columcille’s case was discussed at a synod which met at Tailten in 563, and the Óenach witnessed strife if not battle, almost exclusively amongst the Uí Néill, in 679, 717, 733, 777, 791, 827, and 927 (MacNeill 1962, 329-31; Binchy 1958, 118-22). Five occasions when the Óenach was not held in the 870s and 880s were noted in the annals, as well as attempts by interlopers to preside over the festivities, such as Cathal Mac Finguine, king of Munster, in 733 (ibid. 121), or Diarmaid Mac Cearbhail, king of Ossory, in 894 (MacNeill 1962, 326-31), although the latter might be an annalistic error (Byrne 1973, 163).
Annalistic references cease after 926 until Brian Ború spent a night there while en route to Armagh in 1004. Maelseachlain, now only a sub-king of Meath, revived the Óenach in 1006 when a commemorative poem was written by Cúán Úa Lothcháin, and this provides most of our information on the origin and topography of the Óenach (Gwynn 1924, vol. 4, 147-63). Nine raths are named as well as the graves of Tailtiu and Eochaidh Garbh, and there were seven named stones. However, only Rath Aithir (Oirthear, eastern) is now applied to the ceremonial enclosure (ME017-033----). While Brian Ború may have hesitated over Tailten, Turlough O’Conor, the ambitious King of Connaught, made a point of presiding over an Óenach in 1120, and in 1168 his son Ruaraí, whose mother was a Clan Colman princess named Tailtin, held the last regal Óenach in 1168 when the crowds are said to have occupied the plain between Mulach Aiti (Hill of Lloyd) and Tailten. (MacNeill 1962, 332-35)
The festival continued at the original location until c. 1770 (Wilde 1849, 152) when the games moved to the river at Martry mill (Mason 1814, 1, 95-6; Morris 1930, 114 ftn 5), and according to John O’Donovan they may have finally come to an end c. 1810 (Herity 2001, 11). Tailten is described in the sources as a cemetery, and this has led some to speculate that it was centred on the passage tombs of Slieve na Cailliagh (Conwell 1879, 72-81; Morris 1930), but John O’Donovan writing in 1836 (Herity 2001, 2-4, 11-15) fixed the location in the Telltown – Oristown area and identified many of the monuments. Máire MacNeill (1962, 311, 338) was able to confirm the continuing oral tradition of the festival in the 1950s, and Gosling (2016) confirms the importance of its monuments.
All prehistoric and early historic monuments in the area could be related to the Óenach. This includes three Ceremonial enclosures (ME017-027----; 017-033----; ME017-049----) and four ponds which were brought to the attention of John O’Donovan by local people in 1836 as well as the enclosure of Lug an Aonaigh (ME017-0059----) where marriages were contracted in the seventeenth century according to Keating (Comyn and Dinneen 1902-14, 2, 248) and undoubtedly long before. Although Tailten is described as a burial place with numerous named raths and stones, only one barrow (ME017-033001-), the site of one cairn (ME017-058----) and one standing stone (ME017-034002-) are known. Early medieval church sites such as Donaghpatrick (ME017-034006-) and Teltown (ME017-031----) would be contemporary with the early historic Óenach, and the ford (ME017-061----) would allow access from the S side of the river long before the medieval roadway (ME017-062----) was established.

Located on a NW-SE ridge and now largely in mixed woodland which has preserved the earthworks, but traces of the defining features are only slightly traceable in pasture to the E. The barrow (ME017-033001-) is within the innermost fosse defining a large ovoid enclosure (int. dims c. 80m NE-SW; c. 60m NE-SW) at NE, although there may have been a low bank within this fosse. The enclosure is defined by two large earthen banks and three fosses, and a case might be made for a third outer bank. The innermost fosse (Wth of top 5-6m; int. D 1.6m at SW, ext. D 0.5m at SW to 1.4m at NE) is separated by a bank (Wth of base 4-5m; ext. H 0.5 at SW to 1.5m at NE) from a central fosse (at NE: Wth of top 6m; ext. D 1.2m). This is bounded by another outer bank (at NE: Wth 8m; ext. H 1.2m) and an external fosse (Wth of top 4.5m; ext. D 0.5m). These features survive SSW-W-NE, but a NW-SE road bank at SW truncates the defining features of the enclosure in this area.
The barrow has been described as a motte and the enclosure as a bailey (Moore 1987, 159), because of their proximity to Donaghpatrick church (ME017-034006-), c. 100m to the S, but they are much more ancient earthworks (Westropp 1904, 327-8; Herity 1993, 142-3), and have no medieval associations. Rath Airthir is recorded in the annals from AD 784 when relics of St Patrick were abused there during the Aonach Tailtiu, or the Tailtean meeting (AFM). The triple ramparts of Rath Airthir are recorded in the Dinshenchas, and it was probably the location for the Royal assembly at Tailtu (Herity 1993, 142-3). The enclosure with its internal barrow in the midst of a royal landscape is best compared with ceremonial enclosures such as Rathra, Co. Roscommon (RO027-012001-).
A hand-dug archaeological test trench (dims 9m x 3m) across the line of the innermost fosse at E, as identified in a gradiometer survey of 2004, was conducted (05E0482) over two weeks in 2005. The fosse (Wth of top 6.5-7m; Wth of base 2.5m; max. D 2.8m) has a fairly rounded base and was filled with eight layers of brown silty clays or loams with small stones, with a layer of stones against the inner edge of the f

References

Dowling, G. 2011 The architecture of power: an exploration of the orogoms of closely spaced multivallate monuments in Ireland. In Schot, R., Newman, C. and E. Breathnach (eds) Landscapes of Cult and Kingship, 213-231. Dublin, Four Courts Press

Wilde, W. 1849 The beauties of the Boyne and its tributary, the Blackwater. Dublin. McGlashan.

Herity, M. 1993 Motes and Mounds at Royal Sites in Ireland: Raith Airthir, Meath. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 23, 127-51.

Herity, M. (ed.) 2001 Ordnance Survey Letters: Meath. Dublin. Four Masters Press

Swift, C. 2000 The local context of Óenach Tailten. Ríocht na Mídhe, vol. 11, 24-50.

Binchy, D. A. 1958 The fair of Tailtiu and the feast of Tara. Ériu 18, 113-38.

Comyn, D. and P. S. Dinneen (eds) 1902-14 Foras Feasa ar Éirinn: the history of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating. 4 vols Irish Texts Society, London

Gwynn, E. 1924 The metrical Dindshenchas. Part IV. Dublin, Hodges Figgis.

Conwell, E. A. 1879 On the identification of the Ancient Cemetery at Loughcrew, Co. Meath: And the Discovery of the Tomb of Ollamh Fudhla. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 1, C 72-106.

Morris, H. 1930 Where was Aonach Tailtean? Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 60, 113-29

Dowling, G. and Newman, C. 2005 Raith Airthir, Donaghpatrick, Co. Meath. Preliminary excavation (stratigraphic) report. Licence: 05E0482. Unpublished report, Authors

Mason, W.S. 1814-19 A statistical account or parochial survey of Ireland, 3 vols. Dublin. Faulkner-Press.

Westropp, T.J. 1904 On Irish motes and early Norman castles. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 34, 313-43.

MacNeill, M. 1962 The festival of Lughnasa. London. Oxford University Press.

Moore, M. 1987 Archaeological inventory of county Meath. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Byrne, F.J. 1973 (reprint 1983) Irish Kings and High Kings. London. Batsford.

AFM - Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the year 1616, ed. and trans. John O'Donovan (7 vols., Dublin, 1851; reprint New York, 1966)