Tara: Rath Luth Media Links

Ongoing report of activists camped at Rath Lugh on Indymedia.ie

An interview with Dr. Conor Newman - Head of Archaeology for this project. He discusses the impact of the destruction done to the Wooden Henge at Lismullen, and the possible damage that will be caused to the rath at Rath Lugh.

Call for Donga for Rathlugh- This is a short video showing the ongoing destruction on this beautiful woodland within the rath at Rath Lugh, a national monument in the Tara Skryne more... Valley. It is important to highlight that the whole structure including glacial slide is under severe threat if the dozers take the side of this monument.

Interview with J.P. Fay - Here is a short video interview with J.P. Fay, an independent activist who has been working on an alternative route for the proposed M3. He more... discusses some of the blatant disregard to our heritage and talks about the effects it will have on future generations to come.

Tarapixie.net Photo Gallery

http://www.tarapixie.net/images/august07/index.htm

Rath Lugh directly affected by M3 motorway in Tara Valley

Oct 2007: here some detailed researched on the confusion over Rath Lugh by John Farrelly Posted here

Rath Lugh is a promontory fort over looking the Gabhra Valley, a man made addition to an esker of earth and gravel now covered in trees, a part of defensive zone around Tara. The land originally belond to coillte (the Irish state forestry company) and was given to the NRA who began clearing the trees and digging into the mound in February 2007. In August while focus in the media was on Lismullin workers excavated further into the corpse on Rath Lugh.

As far as I know no (new) archaelogical survey has been carried out on Rath Lugh as the fort itself is not inside the road take. The above aerial photos(*) shows the rath marked in the trees but I have not seen a precise position of the rath but NRA said it wouldn't be affected.. here

Rath Lugh is today separated from Tara by the existing N3 and lies under dense vegetation and tree cover. It was not possible to route the M3 to the east of the site, instead it skirts the base of the elevated promontory on which Rath Lugh is located, approximately 20m below, and will not interfere with the site itself or the view of this site from Tara.

Then the NRA said that the line of the fence (photo) was as far as the work would go. And the chief archeaologist Mary Deevy said that excavations were at a part of an esker ridge - two fields away from Rath Lugh". A campaigner Terry tried to drag information out of the NRA who said a retaining wall would be built to prevent further damage of the esker, now maybe the rath itself is not directly affected but the rath's purpose was it's setting which now has been damaged. as DR Conor Newman consultant archaeologist explains.

The builders of Rath Lugh use the natural high position to overlook the Gabhra Valley.

Concrete posts of old Coillte fence in background

A series of photos taken in January

Series of photos from April.

Series of photos from August.

Lismullin with Rath Lugh in the background.

A report of a visit to Rath Lugh via Mythical Ireland

A series of photos from mid August.

A new red marker deep in the trees Report on Indymedia

Photos taken by Dr. Muireann Ni Bhrolchain a Celtic studies professor very active in trying to conserve Tara. Albums of photos of Temair

Rath Lugh circled in fig 3 of this pdf By my eye its 75metres away from the road on that map, and the M3 is describe by the NRA as 20 metres below the fort.

Google mapping for activism: Tara Valley

To use for the public to make sense of the whole area. I have included everything here, the sites at Tara and the old and new motorways and the towns and rail in the wider area to see where the motorway would be servicing. Its surprising and disappointing there isn't a higher quality satellite photo on google earth (or anywhere else) the Tara area is very low res but you can see its place in the country better.

You can view these in Google Maps at a click of button but best to have or download Google Earth to view them properly and be able to turn on and off layers. People can add placemarks for points of interest using googlearth or mymaps and I can further refine the maps. I'd particularly like help defining the Tara demesne.

Take a minute to get a google loging if you haven't already got one and you can quickly be sketching details of archaeological sites onto a overview of Tara and Meath.

Tara hill and M3 (everything)

This is everything I've traced and marked Tara Skyrne... M3/N2/N3... roads... towns... archaeological sites.. dig sites along the M3... existing road and planned interchanges...existing rail and possible stations.

This is large file and cluttered so I broke it up so people can view it on googlemaps.

The 10 NRA route options and Tara

The blue route was chosen.

Tara hill and M3 motorway(basic).

The motorway being rebuilt from Dublin to Cavan.

Motorway, bypasses and interchanges in white and blue.

The Tara earthworks and dig sites along the proposed motorway.

Royal City of Tara (see Could someone define the Tara Landscape).

Tara Physcial

Earthworks, Sites River roads hills and Topo lines around tara. Plus Bru Na boinne Heritage enclosure for comparison.

Tara and Roads.Tara and M3 N3 N2 proposed M3 and interchanges, tolling points towns and possible rail path.

Meath Rail options. Disused track and possible new stations.

Old trackways and working line from Drogheda Navan still exist.

Bru Na boinne Basics to compare the UNESCO heritage park and protective buffer zone.

You could use Panoramio to place your on Google satellite maps see my Panoramio site for examples. Also turn on geographic web layer in GE to see an examples.

Photos of onsite by Muireann
Photos by Michael Martin from the site and Camp

NRA M3 route options

Every NRA M3 route goes through the Royal city of Tara the conversationalist/archaeologists preferred the Orange route. Here is preview of the routes mapped onto a googlemap satellite view.

The route chosen was the blue route to the east of Tara within the Skryne Valley. As explained on the NRA M3 site it would have gone through less residences, although nobody has seen a map showing this, the orange route would disrupt the famous view from Tara to the west although it would have not gone through the Gabhra Valley.

Could someone define the Tara Hill and Valley landscape?

There has been lots of talk about the Tara Valley landscape but it hasn't been defined.

The core Tara landscape/complex can be best defined by highlighting the following defensive sites: Skryne, Rath Lugh, Rath Miles, Ringlestown Rath, Riverstown defensive earthwork, and Rath Maeve.

I know it probably couldn't be defined exactly down to the last metre but this map added to be by Con Conner is the only visual description(*) I've seen to attempt to define the Royal City of Tara.

Map by Con Connor of druidschool.com

The Druid expert suggest that the extent of the Royal City is determined by the defensive raths on high points around Tara. Although all 10 of NRA proposed routes enter this zone with the archaeologist's/conservationist preferred choice of those 10 the 'orange route' (which goes to the west away from the Gabhra Valley) cuts off the (Ringlestown) rath circled in the bottom left of this picture. (Googlemap of NRA routes) Heres a capture of my version of Connor's investigation which can be explored on googleearth.

Are the yellow lines the extent of the Royal City of Tara landscape.

I have also added to the googlemap the outline of the Bru na Boinne national park ( around New grange Knowth and Dowth )as example of trying to define a national monument and to compare the size with any future national park for Tara.

A archaeological protection zone and buffer zone for development.

Report on the M3 motorway impact on the Tara landscape. by Edel Bhreathnach, Conor Newman, Joseph Fenwick. tara hill