Brusselstown Ring: Ireland's Largest Prehistoric Settlement Challenges Viking Town Origins
Brusselstown Ring in the Baltinglass Hillfort Cluster, located in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, has been identified as the largest nucleated settlement found in prehistoric Britain and Ireland, with more than 600 suspected house platforms.
Dating indicates the site emerged around 1200 BC during the Late Bronze Age, with occupation mainly in that period and continued use or reuse into the Early Iron Age.
The site features two widely spaced ramparts enclosing the inner area and the nearby Spinas Hill One, containing about 98 houses inside the inner enclosure and over 500 houses between the ramparts.
Excavations in 2024 were led by Dr Dirk Brandherm from Queen's University Belfast along with researchers Cherie Edwards and Dr Linda Boutoille, with findings published in Antiquity.
This discovery challenges the previously held view that Vikings founded Ireland's first towns, suggesting the existence of a large proto-town approximately two millennia earlier.
Among the findings is a stone-lined, boat-shaped water cistern located near a trench; if dated to the same period, it would be the first known such structure in Ireland, similar to cisterns found at Bronze and Iron Age sites in France and Spain.
Future research aims to confirm the cistern’s date, investigate the architectural features of the roundhouses, and establish the chronology of the enclosing elements and the settlement’s development.
Previously, the largest known house cluster was at Mullaghfarna in County Sligo with around 150 houses dating from the middle Stone Age to the Bronze Age; Brusselstown Ring significantly surpasses this size.
