Image Credit: Antiquity (2025)

Vast Prehistoric Hilltop Settlement Discovered in Ireland

Archaeologists have identified what may be the largest clustered village ever recorded in prehistoric Ireland and Britain, revealing a densely populated hilltop landscape that reshapes understanding of early settlement patterns in Northern Europe.
The discovery comes from County Wicklow, Ireland, within a region known as the Baltinglass hillfort cluster. This landscape comprises a chain of hilltop enclosures stretching along the southwestern edge of the Wicklow Mountains. Surveys indicate at least seven major hillforts and several additional enclosures, showing signs of long-term use from the Early Neolithic through the Bronze Age.
At the center of the findings is the Brusselstown Ring, a distinctive enclosure defined by two widely spaced ramparts. Aerial investigations suggest the site once contained more than 600 house platforms, making it the largest known nucleated hillfort settlement in prehistoric Ireland and Britain. The settlement appears to have flourished primarily during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, roughly between 1200 and 800 BC.
Targeted excavations across house platforms of varying sizes indicate a high-density, organized settlement, raising new questions about social structure and community planning during this period. Nearby, archaeologists also uncovered a stone-lined feature with a flat interior that may represent an early water cistern, potentially the first of its kind identified within an Irish hillfort.
The scale and organization of the site suggest that processes resembling early urban development in Northern Europe may have begun several centuries earlier than previously believed. Evidence also indicates that the settlement’s decline followed broader regional trends during the Iron Age, rather than being driven by climatic change.

Published on: 31-12-2025

Edited by: Abdulmnam Samakie

Source: The Independent