Dun Ailinne Open Day next Sunday

Dr Susan Johnston explaining a detail last year.

The annual Open Day at the Dun Ailinne excavations will be this coming Sunday, 6 July, from 1pm-4pm, writes Brian Byrne. Dr Susan Johnston will give site tours at 1.30pm and 3pm.

A fee of €5 will be charged, which will be donated to charity. The event is by kind permission of the Thompson family, as the site is part of their working farm.

Dr Johnston, who is based at the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University, has been investigating the site since 2006. With colleague Dr Suzanne Garrett, she has led teams of American archaeology students on summer digs on Dun Ailinne since 2016, in association with the Black Friary Archaeological School in Co Meath. The students gain practical field experience on the site as well gaining an introduction to archaeology of Europe.

The late Professor Bernard Wailes carried out original excavations on Dun Ailinne in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Dr Johnston was the co-author with him of a book on that work, published  in 2007. In 2008, the 'spear' monument, commissioned from the late sculptor Noel Scullion by Kilcullen Community Action, was dedicated as the centrepiece of the Dun Ailinne Interpretive Park in Kilcullen with Professor Wailes in attendance.

Dr Susan Johnston and Dr Suzanne Garrett.

Next Sunday's event is an opportunity to see and hear an update on the findings at a place of major historical significance and which is on the Tentative List for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the ancient Royal Sites of Ireland.

Dun Ailinne is on a private working farmland, not open to the public, and investigations of the site are thanks to the courtesy of the Thompson family.

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