Annagassan - Lisnarann

Annagassan - Lisnarann - Louthiana

Plan view of Lisnarann, the large oval enclosure at Annagassan (from Wright's Louthiana 1748, Bk. I, plate XX). The escarpment to the east of the enclosure is the result of erosion caused by the meander in the River Glyde. Note the embankment running along the crest of the escarpment. The question of whether this might have provided a suitable place for the Vikings to beach their ships in the 9th century is an open one. Though Wright annotates his drawing with the letters A, B C, and D, he does not provide any textual explanation for same. In fact, his only description of the site occurs in the caption where he labels it simply as 'a Danish Fort' (Bk. I, p. 4).

Annagassan - Lisnarann - Louthiana

Annagassan - Lisnarann - Louthiana

Plan view of Lisnarann, the large oval enclosure at Annagassan (from Wright's Louthiana 1748, Bk. I, plate XX). The escarpment to the east of the enclosure is the result of erosion caused by the meander in the River Glyde. Note the embankment running along the crest of the escarpment. The question of whether this might have provided a suitable place for the Vikings to beach their ships in the 9th century is an open one. Though Wright annotates his drawing with the letters A, B C, and D, he does not provide any textual explanation for same. In fact, his only description of the site occurs in the caption where he labels it simply as 'a Danish Fort' (Bk. I, p. 4).

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Since it was first published by Wright in 1748, this drawing of Lisnarann - literally ''the fort of the promontory' - has occupied the imagination and writings of Viking-period archaeologists and historians. For by a co-incidence of preservation, the remains at Annagassan are most often mentioned in relation to a series of entries in various Irish Annals for the year AD 841. Amongst these the the following entry has received particular notice: 'there was a naval camp [longport] at Linn Duachaill from which the peoples and churches of Tethba were plundered [by the heathens]' (Annals of Ulster). The deduction is obvious: the remains at Lisnarann must be those of the Viking longphort. Or are they?

Annagassan - Lisnarann - Tempest

Plan of Lisnarann as it was in 1909 (from Tempest and Leslie 1909). Considerable landscape changes are evident since the 1740s, both in the truncation of the meander in the river and in the local road pattern. Moreover, no trace of the curving embankment is noted on the 1909 plan.

Annagassan - Lisnarann - Tempest

Annagassan - Lisnarann - Tempest

Plan of Lisnarann as it was in 1909 (from Tempest and Leslie 1909). Considerable landscape changes are evident since the 1740s, both in the truncation of the meander in the river and in the local road pattern. Moreover, no trace of the curving embankment is noted on the 1909 plan.

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The surviving enclosure is D-shaped, its flat side running along a steep scarp which drops into the River Fane. It is oval on plan (73m by 34m max.) and is delimited along its landward sides by a slight bank and fosse. Unfortunately no trace survives of the curving embankment which Wright shows extending eastwards from the enclosure along the scarp, as if forming a protective arm around a possible berthing place for ships at the river mouth.

Today, Viking scholars are much more cautious as to whether Lisnarann is a Viking monument. Research through archaeological survey has shown that some Early Historic period (AD c.400-1100) residences of well-to-do families were built on cliffs and promontories. While nowhere as common as the ubiquitous ringfort, they are nevertheless part of the range of secular habitation sites of the 1st millennium AD. Thus Lisnarann may be no more than the residence of an Irish family, a proposition which gathers weight when one considers that there is a local tradition of a souterrain (see Donaghmore - Souterrain) beneath the fort.

What is not in doubt is that the Vikings did over-winter in this part of Louth in the mid-ninth century as is evidence by the finds of objects bearing runic inscriptions at Greenmount which lies only 5km to the west of Annagassan. Perhaps the Vikings simply occupied a pre-existing site at Annagassan for a time, utilizing the sheltered mouth of the River Fane in order to beach their ships.