It consists of a ditched bank with a raised platform in the centre, on a bend in a river next to its confluence with a tributary. The site commonly known as Athlunkard (Ath-an-longphuirt) in County Clare is not connected to any specific event and is actually in Fairyhill townland (two townlands to the north), half a mile from Athlunkard bridge. Kelly draws attention to the similarities of these arrangements to those described at a Viking fortification on the River Dyle in Belgium, which was destroyed in AD 891. The dún itself is a ringfort on a small hill surrounded by a large D-shaped ditched enclosure. The fleet, which was destroyed, had recently arrived from Lochlainn and a ‘dreadful slaughter’ was made of them. the destruction of Longphort-Rothlaibh by Cinnedidh, son of Gaithin, Lord of Laighis, on the fifth of the ides of September and the killing of Conall Ultach and Luirgnen, with many others along with them’. Kelly, suggested that the name Dunrally is an Anglicisation of Dún-Rothlaibh (Rodolph’s fort), which they connect to Longphort-Rothlaibh of AD 862. The three Irish sites all feature D-shaped enclosures on the edge of rivers but other than that have little in common. A burial mound next to the enclosure contained a Viking war-grave and the enclosure itself incorporates an Anglo-Saxon church. The remains of a winter camp of AD 873–4 at Repton, on the Trent near Derby and one of the few such sites to be thoroughly excavated, do feature a D-shaped enclosure. Scandinavian fortifications, such as at Hedeby (Germany) and Århus (Denmark), feature a D-shaped enclosure, but these are much more mature than the early longphuirt. Much of the discussion of the likely significance of Woodstown has drawn on other supposed examples of longphuirt at Dunrally (Co. Reconstruction of a Viking winter camp at Repton, 873–4. If it can be precisely dated, Woodstown may give us a good look at the original Viking presence in Waterford harbour and hence a good analogy for the origins of Dublin. Woodstown has produced ships’ nails, hack-silver, the remains of Viking weaponry and a high-status pagan burial, although early claims that this is the grave of the Viking leader Rodolph seem premature. The early stages of Scandinavian settlement in Ireland and Britain remain difficult to locate in the archaeological record, which is why the recent discoveries at Woodstown, on the upper tidal reaches of the River Suir, are so important. But what exactly was a longphort? Michael Gibbons investigates. Settlements such as this are described as longphuirt or longphorts in the present literature. Waterford, have produced great excitement, and not a little hyperbole. Recent discoveries of Scandinavian settlement remains at Woodstown, Co. Published in Features, Issue 3 (Autumn 2004), Pre-Norman History, Volume 12 The longphort phenomenon in Early Christian and Viking Ireland
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