Galwaydave @galwaydave - Twitter Profile

Brusselstown Ring sits on a high ridge above the Wicklow lowlands, looking west toward the Shannon basin and east toward the Irish Sea. It kept its greatest secrets for centuries until December 2025, when researchers from Queen’s University Belfast announced it was the largest prehistoric nucleated settlement in Ireland or Britain. More than three thousand years ago it was teeming with life at a time before civilsation was thought to exist in that form on this island. Before this discovery, we only had evidence of hillforts of that age containing a handful of structures. But using aerial survey, LiDAR, and photogrammetry, archaeologists identified over 600 circular house platforms at Brusselstown, packed tightly within the inner enclosure of the fort. This incredibly suggests a community of thousands of prehistoric people, living together in a permanent settlement. The sites huge. Theres the core settlement of about 41 hectares, enclosed by two massive ramparts. But them it stretches to an outer complex of about 131 hectares. And Brusselstown ring itself wasnt isolated. It was the central node in the broader Baltinglass hillfort cluster. Kind of like a regional capital of prehistoric Leinster. Radiocarbon dating places the main occupation in the Late Bronze Age, roughly 1200 to 800 BC, with evidence of continued use into the Early Iron Age. And thats the mad part because it pushes what we believed about large scale, organised communal living in Ireland back five centuries earlier than previously assumed. Irish people were living primitive urban lives long before written history. An absolute gem of prehistoric engineering is the stone lined feature interpreted as a water cistern, which implies so much like long-term planning and collective labour. Perhaps me favourite aspect of the findings is the equality in size and structure of all the gaffs. There are larger structures exist, but they dont contain richer material culture. So theres no obvious quarters for the "elite" set apart from the rest. Just a densely packed and broadly uniform settlement, suggesting a highly organised but relatively egalitarian society. This challenges a deep-rooted assumptions that complex prehistoric Irish required rigid hierarchy or external influence. Brusselstown Ring suggests community capable of coordination on a massive scale without obvious stratification. Sources: https://t.co/D09t9Cg0dV https://t.co/fxPVRnzVW6 Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book https://t.co/U7jtCrOTtb

RobLooseCannon's tweet photo. Brusselstown Ring sits on a high ridge above the Wicklow lowlands, looking west toward the Shannon basin and east toward the Irish Sea. It kept its greatest secrets for centuries until December 2025, when researchers from Queen’s University Belfast announced it was the largest prehistoric nucleated settlement in Ireland or Britain.

More than three thousand years ago it was teeming with life at a time before civilsation was thought to exist in that form on this island. Before this discovery, we only had evidence of hillforts of that age containing a handful of structures.

But using aerial survey, LiDAR, and photogrammetry, archaeologists identified over 600 circular house platforms at Brusselstown, packed tightly within the inner enclosure of the fort. This incredibly suggests a community of thousands of prehistoric people, living together in a permanent settlement.

The sites huge. Theres the core settlement of about 41 hectares, enclosed by two massive ramparts. But them it stretches to an outer complex of about 131 hectares. And Brusselstown ring itself wasnt isolated. It was the central node in the broader Baltinglass hillfort cluster. Kind of like a regional capital of prehistoric Leinster.

Radiocarbon dating places the main occupation in the Late Bronze Age, roughly 1200 to 800 BC, with evidence of continued use into the Early Iron Age. And thats the mad part because it pushes what we believed about large scale, organised communal living in Ireland back five centuries earlier than previously assumed.

Irish people were living primitive urban lives long before written history. An absolute gem of prehistoric engineering is the stone lined feature interpreted as a water cistern, which implies so much like long-term planning and collective labour.

Perhaps me favourite aspect of the findings is the equality in size and structure of all the gaffs. There are larger structures exist, but they dont contain richer material culture. So theres no obvious quarters for the "elite" set apart from the rest. Just a densely packed and broadly uniform settlement, suggesting a highly organised but relatively egalitarian society.

This challenges a deep-rooted assumptions that complex prehistoric Irish required rigid hierarchy or external influence. Brusselstown Ring suggests community capable of coordination on a massive scale without obvious stratification.

Sources:
https://t.co/D09t9Cg0dV

https://t.co/fxPVRnzVW6

Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book
https://t.co/U7jtCrOTtb

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Galwaydave @galwaydave

27 days ago

@ActuFoot_ I bet this was the wife's idea. No days on the beer for this dad 😂

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Galwaydave @galwaydave

27 days ago

@jomickane It helps that it's a cracking anthem too. Come on Scotland !!! my Celtic cousins :D

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Galwaydave @galwaydave

27 days ago

@RobustFeed Fried baked potato is not a baked potato.

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Galwaydave @galwaydave

27 days ago

@BBCSport "It sparked widespread speculation on social media" Can we please ban all stories where this is reason for the Controversy. The sewer of humanity that is social media is hardly a source for news. Such a non-story.

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Galwaydave @galwaydave

27 days ago

@Adrian_Hilton Gingers ?

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Galwaydave @galwaydave

28 days ago

@RaminNasibov That i'll die before ever exploring it and that it's mysteries will likely never be truely understood.

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galwaydave retweeted

Football Away Days

@FBAwayDays

29 days ago

A spine tingling rendition of Flower of Scotland being belted out by The Tartan Army, before their first World Cup Finals game in 28 years. A moment that many have waited a lifetime for. 🥹🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❤️