Sheehan - Longhport
Sheehan - Longhport
Copyright 2008
ACTA ARCHAEOLOGICA
ISSN 0065-101X
Introduction
Longphuirt
The initial phase of seasonal Scandinavian raiding in Ireland, commencing according to the annals in 795, gave
way to the establishment of the first winter-camps in Ire-
John Sheehan
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2: Aerial view of the possible longphort at Ballaghkeeran Little, Lough Ree, Co. Westmeath (Photo: Thomas Fanning: inset, bottom left, depicts site
location on the River Shannon; inset, top right, depicts site location based on 1913 Ordnance Survey mapping).
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It is, of course, also possible that the Woodstown enclosure dates to the second decade of the tenth century,
during which the annals record, for 914, A great new
fleet of foreigners came to Loch d Chaech, and placed
a stronghold [longphort] there,52 and, for the following
year, A great and frequent increase in the number of heathens arriving at Loch d Chaech, and the laity and clergy
of Mumu were plundered by them.53 The name Loch d
Chaech refers generally to the Waterford Harbour area,
though Downham has recently drawn attention to the fact
that from 914 to 918 it is exclusively used in the annalistic sources to refer to a Scandinavian settlement at Waterford; both before and after this period the name Port
Lirge is used.54 The final entry for the Loch d Chaech
base, The foreigners of Loch d Chaech, i.e. Ragnall,
king of the Dubgaill [Dark Foreigners], and the two jarls,
Oitir and Gragabai, forsook Ireland,55 implies its abandonment. The name-change from Port Lirge to Loch d
Chaech might indicate, as Downham has suggested, that
a new Scandinavian base was established in the area in
914. Is Loch d Chaech to be identified with the Woodstown site? It seems possible that this is the case, and this
question should become a focus of further research. Some
of the information contained in the annalistic references
to Loch d Chaech, such as the mentions of a great new
fleet,56 the arrivals of great and frequent reinforcements
of foreigners57 and the plundering of Munster and Leinster from it,58 as well as the use of the term longphort to
describe it,59 serve to create the impression that it was a
very large defended base with, of course, access to water,
and this is entirely consistent with the broad picture that
has emerged from the archaeology of the Woodstown site
to date.
Duiblinn/th Cliath
The most important historically attested longphort in Ireland was established at Duiblinn (Dublin) in 841, though
Clarke has proposed that shortly afterwards it may have
been relocated upstream to the nearby river crossing of
th Cliath, by which name it is referred to after 845.60
According to the historical sources it was occupied until
902, when it was apparently destroyed and abandoned following an attack by the combined forces of Brega and Laigin.61 During this period there are many references to its
use as a raiding base, and it seems to have become strong
enough to establish other bases further inland at Clain
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sites. It should be noted, however, that there was probably an early ecclesiastical settlement located close to the
pool, and its enclosure may have been adapted for use as
a longphort by the Scandinavians, as has been suggested
for this and other sites by Floinn.73 Along the southern
side of the pool early settlement evidence, represented
by post-holes, refuse pits, hearths and large quantities
of butchered animal bone, was revealed. The pool itself
produced a collection of ship-rivets, suggesting that boats
were docked there, and along its southern rim five furnished graves were excavated. Osteological examination
revealed that these burials were all of young men, each
radiocarbon dated to between the late seventh and the late
ninth century; their grave-goods included shield-bosses
and weapons. On the northern side of the pool the ninthcentury settlement, which was apparently established
somewhat later than the one on its southern shore, included examples of Wallaces Type 1 houses, flood banks,
property boundaries, animal pens and a stone roadway. In
Temple Bar West, a part of the site on which portion of the
tenth-century town was later superimposed, no evidence
was found to suggest a break in occupancy following 902
when, according to the documentary sources, the longphort was abandoned. In the light of the currently available evidence, Simpson has proposed that the longphort
may have been located on the eastern side of the Poddle,
within an area subsumed by later settlement.74
The date-range of the burials from the southern side
of the Black Pool, several of which have pre-841 intercept dates, prompted Simpson to suggest that there may
have been a Scandinavian encampment in this area before
the 841 establishment of the annalistically recorded longphort.75 This may well have been the case, even though
there are no direct records of such, and it should not be
assumed that all Scandinavian activity in Ireland was recorded in the historical sources. Indeed, Downham has
recently suggested that a short-term Viking base may
have been set-up in the Dublin area in the late 790s, partly
on the basis that the Annals of Ulster record that the heathens took the cattle-tribute of the territories following their raid on Inis Ptraic (perhaps Holmpatrick, north
county Dublin) in 798.76 As she points out, cattle-tribute
was not a practical way of transferring wealth overseas,
and the implication is that it represented supplies for a
Scandinavian base in the locality.
To date, the excavated mid- to late ninth-century
levels of Scandinavian Dublin conform to what might
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gots, ingot and arm-ring fragments, a weight, a wire fragment and pieces of casting waste. Unfortunately, with
only one exception, all of these finds were retrieved from
topsoil contexts. In numerical terms the collection represents more non-numismatic silver than had been found
in over forty years of excavation in Viking-age Dublin.
On the basis of the dating evidence for its various components, it is clear that as an assemblage it contains elements from as early as the later ninth century to, potentially, as late as the mid-eleventh century. The bulk
of the material, however, as represented by ingots and
ingot-derived hack-silver, most likely dates to the period
encompassing the later ninth and tenth centuries. The collection also includes some casting waste and this should
probably be regarded as evidence for silver-working on
the site, along with the excavated evidence for a smithing
hearth.87 Given the nature of the overall assemblage it is
likely that the main product of such silver-working would
have been ingots.
Amongst the silver material from Woodstown is a
small silver scale-weight of polyhedral form (Fig. 6).
Weights of this form and size are of particularly common
occurrence in Scandinavia, especially in its Baltic region,
where they are usually made in copper alloys. The Woodstown example weighs 2.51 gm, and it is interesting to
note that this was one of the target weights identified by
Kyhlberg in his analysis of a series of such weights from
Birka.88 Weights of polygonal type are absent from the
large assemblage of Viking-age weights from Dublin,89
though a small number are on record from England. For
example, three copper-alloy polyhedral weights, with
ornamentation, were amongst the finds from the Viking
winter camp at Torskey, Linconshire, associated with the
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Conclusion
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it was a strongly defended site with settlement and raiding functions, while the nature of its silver assemblage
suggests that it also participated in a broader economic
framework. The evidence of Cuerdale, and other hoards,
has already established a link between silver and longphuirt in the case of Duiblinn/th Cliath. The suggested
association of silver, and sometimes of gold, with other
potential longphuirt, such as Athlunkard, Ballaghkeeran
and Rathmore, indicates that this link may have been a
common one. It may, perhaps, have been mainly due to the
role these types of sites played in the slave trade though,
given the historical evidence for the establishment of political and military alliances between the Scandinavians
and the Irish from the mid-ninth century onwards, it is also
likely that some of them may have developed local trading
and market functions. The evidence of Irelands hoards
demonstrates that considerable silver resources had already been amassed there before the establishment of the
formal Hiberno-Scandinavian towns, and the longphuirt
must have played a key role in this.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Professor Donnchadh Corrin, Department
of Medieval History, University College Cork, and E.P. Kelly, Keeper
of Antiquities, National Museum of Ireland, for the benefit of their
discussions on this paper. He is also grateful to Nick Hogan, Department
ENDNOTES
1 In this paper the terms Scandinavian and HibernoScandinavian are used in accordance with the definitions that are
proposed in Sheehan et al 2001:93-4.
2 Wallace 1992; Simpson 2000; Hurley et al 1997.
3 Bradley 1988.
4 Sheehan 1998.
5 Harrison and Floinn, forthcoming.
6 Simpson 2005: 37-48; Connolly & Coyne 2005: 49-78; OBrien
& Russell 2005: 121-22, fig.7,8; ODonovan 2005.
7 Floinn 1998: 148-53.
8 In Moody et al 1982:20-21.
9 Mytum 2003: 118-22.
10 See Downham 2004: 75, fn. 7, for a listing of the annalistic
references to these foundations. Downham 2007, figs 4 and 8,
conveniently lists the ninth- and tenth-century chronicle references to
viking-camps in Ireland.
11 Doherty 1998: 324.
12 Ibid.: 326.
13 Annals of Ulster: s.a. 844, 845.
14 Floinn 1998:164.
15 Ibid.: 162-64.
16 Clarke 1998:348. Simpson reports that a limited area of
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bradley, J, 1988. The interpretation of Scandinavian settlement in
Ireland, in Bradley, J (ed.), Settlement and Society in Medieval Ireland,
Kilkenny, 49-78.
Brady, N. 1993. Reconstructing a medieval Irish plough, Primeras
Jornadas Internacionales Sobre Technologia Agraria Tradicional,
Madrid, 31-44.
Clarke, H.B., 1998. Proto-towns and towns in Ireland and Britain in
the ninth and tenth centuries, in Clarke, H.B. et al (eds.), Scandinavia
and Ireland in the Early Viking Age, Dublin, 331-80.
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