A SMALLER SOCIAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT IRELAND

From A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland by P. W. Joyce

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CHAPTER XXIV.

LOCOMOTION AND COMMERCE

SECTION 1. Roads, Bridges and Causeways.

Letter R

The five main roads leading from Tara are mentioned in our oldest authorities, as, for instance, in the story of Bruden Da Derga in the Book of the Dun Cow. They were all called slige.

1. Slige Asail [slee-assil] ran from Tara due west towards Lough Owel in Westmeath, and thence probably in a north-westerly direction.

2. Slige Midluachra [meelooghra] extended northwards towards Slane on the Boyne, through the Moyry Pass north of Dundalk, and round the base of Slieve Fuaid, near the present Newtown-Hamilton in Armagh, to the palace of Emain, and on to Dunseverick on the north coast of Antrim: portions of the present northern highway run along its site .

8. Slige Cualann ran south-east through Dublin, across the Liffey by the hurdle-bridge that gave the city the ancient name of Baile-atha-cliath (the town of the hurdle-ford: now pron. Blaa-clee): crossed the Dodder near Donnybrook: then southwards still through the old district of Cualann, which it first entered a little north of Dublin, and from which it took its name (the slige or road of Cualann), and on by Bray, keeping generally near the coast. Fifty years ago a part of this road was plainly traceable between Dublin and Bray.

4. Slige Dala, the south-western road, running from Tara towards and through Ossory in the present Co. Kilkenny. This old name is still applied to the road from Kells to Carrick-on-Suir by Windgap.

5. Slige Mór ('great highway') led south-west from Tara till it joined the Esker-Riada* near Clonard, along which it mostly continued till it reached Galway. Portions of this road along the old Esker which raised it high and dry over the bogs are still in use, being traversed by the present main highway.

Besides these five great highways, which are con-constantly referred to, the Annals and other old documents notice numerous individual roads. In the Four Masters we find thirty-seven ancient roads mentioned with the general name bealach [ballagh], nearly all with descriptive epithets, like Ballaghmoon near Carlow.

In old times the roads seem to have been very well looked after: and the regulations for making and cleaning them, and keeping them in repair, are set forth with much detail in the Brehon Laws.

http://www.libraryireland.com/SocialHistoryAncientIreland/III-XXIV-1.php

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75113

http://www.druidschool.com/site/1030100/page/809109

An Analysis of Pre-Christian Ireland Using Mythology and A GIS

What is GIS?

GIS is a collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information.

http://www.gis.com/whatisgis/

click for larger image

This paper synthesizes cultural anthropology and archaeology: it promotes mythology as a historic source for archaeological research, and uses GIS to help interpret mythological and geographical data relevant to the Celts of pre-Christian Ireland. The ArcView program establishes correlation between geographic characteristics and pre-Christian Ireland's mythology, recorded in the dindshenchas - a collection of legends describing the origins of Irish place-names. Routes are predicted by ArcView using a cost analysis query procedure and sites from the dindshenchas known to associate with the roads, thus providing archaeological reference to the Five Roads of Tara, the ancient Seat of Ireland's High Kings.~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dindshenchas data illustrate sites reflecting many feature types. There are a variety of geographic feature types (identified by reviewing the dindshenchas and Focl�ir P�ca, an Irish/English dictionary): stones, rocks, heights, fords, passes, peaks, assemblies, cairns, enclosures, woods, pools, mounds, trees, provinces, bogs, palisades, estuaries, rivers, fairy mounds, mountains, roads, houses, ramparts, and swimming places (see Table 1).

Table 1: dindshenchas site feature types.

Irish	English
adhlacadh (modern)	burial
ail	stone, rock
ard	height
ath	ford
belach	pass
benn, bend	peak
bile	tree
bri	hill
brug	palace, mansion
caisel	stone fort
carcar	prison
carn, cairn	cairn
carraic	rock
cenn	head, mountain
chaill	woods
cliath	hurdle
clocha, cloch	stone
cluain	meadow
cness	side of hill
cnoc	hill
coi	path, road
coire	cauldron
coirthe, coirthi	standing stone
crich	boundary, region, territory


cruachan	rounded hill
cuan	harbor, bend, curve
cuil	corner, nook
daire	oak wood
derc	grave
druim	ridge, hilltop
dubthir	thicket
duma	mound
dun	fort, fortress
iamh, fail (modern)	enclosure
fert	grave
fich	town land
fid	wooded
glais	stream, greensward
glen	glen, valley
gort	field of battle
grellach	clay
inber	estuary, river mouth
inis	island
lia	stone
lind	pool
loch	lake


luachair	rushes, reedy place
lecc	stone
mag	plain
moin	bog
mur	rampart
oenach	assembly
port	harbor
cuige (modern)	province
rath, raith	ringfort, rampart wall
rinnd	top, promontory point
ross	wood, headland
sce	slant, slope
sid	fairymound
sliab	mountain
slige	road
snam	swimming place
tighi	house
tir	country
tond	wave
tor	brush, shrub, tuft
tul, tulach	low hill
uaig	grave

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anthropology brings the past alive, and presents the possibilities for the future. The persons who created the Pyramids, the Temple of Kukulcan, and the dindshenchas did so with the future in mind; humans want to be more than a brief blip in time. Establishing connections to the past and the future gives the illusion of immortality.

The people who produced pre-Christian Ireland's Celtic worldview of heroes, gods, and belief systems, and named Ireland's landscape features accordingly continue to exist and are connected to modern people by projects like this one.

	Slige Midluachra is the northern road that extended from Temair (Tara) through Emain Macha and on to Dunseverick (in present-day Northern Ireland).
It is described in the literature as passing on or near Drogheda, Dundalk, Sliab Fuaid, Moyra Pass, Cell na Sagart (Kilnesagart), Druim Cain (in Louth), Clogher (north of Dundalk), and Loch Trena (some of these locations are in the dindshenchas database). Slige Cualann met Slige Midluachra at Tara; the two roads are extensions of one another. Map #11 shows Slige Midluachra highlighted in yellow:

One hundred years from now, someone will connect to data and research being produced today, continuing the cycle of connection. Anthropology is a way to experience what it means to be human - to study what we as the human species have created as our world and to recognize our own connection to the past and the future by developing our knowledge in the present.

http://gis.esri.com/library/userconf/proc02/pap1030/p1030.htm

Slige Midluachra

From Wikipedia,

Slige Midluachra is the old northern road sometimes known High Kings Road that ran in ancient times from Tara to Dunseverick on the north coast of Ireland.

It was one of the legendary Five Roads of Tara, site of the ancient Seat of Ireland's High Kings. The legendary Five Roads of Tara, described in the Dindshenchas of Slige Dala, are named Slige Dala, Slige Assail, Slige Midluachra, Slige Cualann, and Slige Mor.

General road routes are described in the Dindshenchas, with mention of a few reference locations along each road. Three other ancient roads, referred to as "cow" roads, were found in Lady Gregory's Irish Myths and Legends. Lady Gregory relates the legend of how Manannan's three cows (one white, one red, and one black) created the first three roads in Ireland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slige_Midluachra

Route of Midluachra

N. Ireland - Belfast - South Armagh

South Armagh

Known as The Gap of the North, South Armagh has a culture and beauty all of its own. Now emerging from decades of conflict, the area is increasing its tourism potential and establishing itself as a new highlight for visitors keen to explore beyond the obvious.~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Kilnasaggart Pillar Stone
The stone marks the site of an ancient cemetery on one of Early Christian Ireland's great main roads running from Tara to Dunseverik, Co. Antrim through the Moyry Pass.

A long Irish inscription records a dedication by Tenroc, son of Ceran Bec, placing the site under the patronage of Peter the Apostle. Thought to be a local of some importance, Ternoc's death is recorded as 714 or 716, dating the stone at around AD700 and making it Ireland's earliest dated cross-carved stone.

other cross-carved stones

http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/crosspillars1.htm

http://www.inyourpocket.com/feature/56130-south_armagh_.html