Navan Fort & Area Heritage Community Group

20/10/2026

19/10/2026

While a development proposal for a £4.5m project at the Navan Centre was 'unsuccessful' in 2022, there has been 'positive feedback' from other potential funders in relation to a masterplan for the Armagh tourist attraction. https://tinyurl.com/y7e43wmb

09/10/2026

29/09/2026

In the late 1700s, workers digging a drain beside a small Armagh lake uncovered something nobody expected to find still in one piece after two thousand years, a set of curved bronze war horns.

The find came from Loughnashade, a lake that sits in the shadow of Navan Fort, known in Irish legend as Emain Macha, the ceremonial seat of the ancient kings of Ulster. Workers recovered four enormous horns made from sheet bronze, each one skillfully curved and hammered into shape by hand, dating to around 100 BC. Only one of the four survives today.

What makes the surviving horn remarkable is the craftsmanship itself. Bronze Age and Iron Age smiths shaped thin sheets of bronze into a smooth curving tube nearly two meters long, joined so precisely that the seams are barely visible, then finished with a wide decorated bell at one end. Instruments like it appear on continental Iron Age art as the kind of horn carried into battle or blown at major ceremonies, capable of producing a deep, resonant sound meant to be heard across a great distance.

The horn's placement at the edge of a lake beside one of ancient Ireland's most important royal sites suggests it was not lost by accident but deliberately placed there, a practice known from other Iron Age finds across Europe where valuable bronze objects were offered into water rather than kept.

A single surviving horn, pulled from the mud after two thousand years, is now the only voice left from a ceremony that once echoed across the hills of ancient Ulster.

If you could hear the sound this horn once made, what do you imagine it sounded like?

29/09/2026

24/09/2026

At 1880ft it is hard to imagine a more scenic building site than the summit of Slieve Gullion. But every day a team including archaeologists, engineers, and blacksmiths has been trekking to the top of County Armagh's highest mountain to repair its 5,000-year-old passage tomb.

18/09/2026

Macha (Folklore Goddess of County Armagh)
Macha is a powerful figure in Irish folklore, often linked with the ancient stories and traditions of County Armagh. She’s described as a striking and watchful goddess—someone whose presence is said to bring strength, resilience, and a sense of mythic identity to the landscape and its people. Over time, her story has continued to be “seen” through retellings, local heritage, and artistic interpretations that keep her legend alive.
Faigy

09/08/2026

Mythical Ireland