Dun Ailinne Open Day 2024

Dr Susan Johnston on Dun Ailinne.

The annual Open Day on Dun Ailinne organised by the archaeologists currently conducting their summer 'dig' at the site will be held on Sunday 7 July, writes Brian Byrne. The event will run from 1pm-4pm.

Under the supervision of Dr Susan Johnston of the Anthropology Department at George Washington University, and Dr Suzanne Garrett, a group of archaeology students have been on the site, which is on private land owned by the Thompson family, for the last two weeks. Dr Johnston has been undertaking investigations on Dún Ailinne since 2002. Prior to that, as a graduate student with the late Professor Bernard Wailes, she worked in the late 1980s with material from Dún Ailinne gathered by him in his own excavations on the site between 1968-1975, and she is the co-author with him of the final report on his investigations. The excavations undertaken for a month each year provide students from the US with a unique field experience of ancient European archaeological investigation, facilitated by the Black Friary Archaeological School in Co Meath.

The Open Day will include tours conducted by Dr Johnston at 1.30pm and 3pm. An entrance fee of €5 will go to the Jack and Jill Foundation.

Drs Johnston and Garrett's work on the Kilcullen site through the years has been undertaken with associate Professor Pam Crabtree and has revealed the existence of a substantially more complex set of structure remains than had previously been known.

Dún Ailinne has been put on the Tentative List for UNESCO World Heritage classification, as part of the Royal Sites of Ireland application which includes Hill of Uisneach, County Westmeath; Rock of Cashel, County Tipperary; Rathcroghan, County Roscommon; and Tara, County Meath. 

NOTE: As Dún Ailinne is on a private working farm, it is not open to the public at any other time apart from the annual Open Day.

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