Today Illaunobrick is very difficult to reach due to erosion and is almost a sea stack. However, the older Irish names remember an important family group, the O’Brics, who were early medieval kings in southern Waterford. References to Danes suggests some people thought Vikings built this fort. The promontory fort of Illaunobrick is marked as Danes Island on maps. The Irish place names here include Illaunobrick and Templeobrick that mean Island of O’Bric and church of O’Bric respectively. There is a concentration of eight forts around Ballynarrid near Bunmahon in Co. Islandhubbock Promontory Fort showing three banks at the entrance with Ballyvoyle Head in the background Ballynarrid, Co. CHERISH has recorded these forts by UAV and explored the access to the sea below. This tower reveals a significant maritime purpose for these forts as they would be able to observe the sea routes. This would also have aided vessels passing this coast. The nearby two promontory forts at Ballyvoyle Head had a prominent landmark on the 19th-century Admiralty Charts. This suggests it is more important than other forts that only have one bank and ditch. This fort has three ditches and two banks on its landward side. One of the promontory forts has a hut site and underground passage called a souterrain. The writing one ogham stone from around the 5 th century AD suggests the people who lived here are descendants of 1 st-century BC King of Munster Nia Segaman. Landward in the surrounding fields are early medieval raths or ringforts, ecclesiastical enclosures and ogham stones. There are three promontory forts here with heights up to 70m at Ballyvoyle Head. Islandhubbock has the highest cliffs of the Copper Coast in Co. The double embankment at the entrance to Woodstown Promontory Fort, close to Annestown Beach, Co. The methods will involve coring and eroding cliff section recording. Soil samples for dating and identifying the purpose of these forts is to be collected. Further geophysics is being prepared for within the fort and islands. A hut site has been identified on one of the islands from the UAV model undertaken by CHERISH. A standing stone was once in the field landward. It has a double bank and ditch defence on its landward side. The fort overlooks the beach at Annestown. Erosion continues here with caves and sea tunnels found around the promontory, islets, stacks and stumps. At low tide, the largest of these islets called Green Island can be walked to from the shore. The sea has split the promontory fort into small islets. The banks and ditches are under severe erosion today. Woodstown promontory fort is on the eastern side of Annestown Strand. This area includes the ‘Copper Coast’ named after mining evidenced by adits, shafts, spoil heaps, ore yards and engine houses. A complex of over 29 promontory forts is between Tramore and Dungarvan, overlooking the Celtic Sea. They are fortifications, with banks and ditches separating them from the surrounding cliffs. These forts may have been originally built in the Iron Age though were occupied into the medieval period. Erosion has remodelled many coastal promontory forts into stacks and separate promontories in Co.
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