On Top of the Grianan of Aileach

I haven’t been to a lot of places which are older than the Grianan of Aileach. This is probably why I was looking forward to visiting this place here on top of a hill in county Donegal. The Grianan of Aileach is basically a ruined ring fort which was built in the sixth or seventh century by the kingdom of Aileach. The fort was eventually destroyed by the kingdom of Munster. I guess, that is really how things go here. Granted that Aileach wasn’t a particularly powerful kingdom, it still lasted several centuries probably owing a lot to the rugged terrain of present day county Donegal. The Grianan of Aileach is basically a stone ring fort and I would have to admit that I was a bit underwhelmed when I finally made it inside. The walls of the fort are about four meters thick and five meters high. It was no slouch, but inside was a different story.

The inside of the Grianan of Aileach was just grass. I was half expecting some sort of structure like a palace inside the fort, but there wasn’t anything there. It is possible that there really as stuff here previously but it is no long gone. Although the walls are hollow and parts of it have passageways in them, it is highly unlikely that Aileach didn’t make use of the large space inside the fort. There have been clues found in the area about the nature of the fort but I think I would have to leave the to archeologists. It would be helpful to not that the current structure was already restored, so it is not 100% original. It is well and good lest the more than a thousand year old structure would just crumble under the feet of intrepid visitors.

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