Well, Drumanagh, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin |
Utility Structures
Somewhere inside the earthwork defences of one of Ireland's most debated archaeological sites, a natural spring pushes quietly up through the ground, completely swallowed by vegetation.
It appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1837, which means cartographers once considered it worth recording, yet today it exists mainly as an entry in monument registers rather than anything a visitor could readily point to.
The spring sits within the promontory fort at Drumanagh, a headland on the north County Dublin coast. Promontory forts use the natural advantage of a coastal or clifftop projection, cutting off the landward approach with one or more earthen banks and ditches, so that the sea does the defensive work on the remaining sides. Drumanagh is a particularly significant example, partly because of its scale and partly because of long-running questions about the nature of occupation there, including possible connections to late Iron Age trade with Roman Britain. The spring would have been a practical necessity for any sustained occupation of such a site, providing fresh water within the protected enclosure itself. The monument as a whole is subject to a preservation order under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014, designation number PO 13/1977, which reflects the seriousness with which the state regards the archaeology of the headland.
Access to Drumanagh is not straightforward, as the headland is in private ownership and formal public access is not guaranteed. The spring's recorded position is within the fort's defences, but given that the site is described as completely overgrown, there would be little to distinguish it from the surrounding ground even if one were standing directly above it. The 1837 OS map remains the clearest documentary evidence of its location. Anyone with a serious research interest in the site would do well to consult the records compiled by Geraldine Stout and updated by Christine Baker through the national monuments survey, which provide the baseline information from which any further investigation would need to start.