Emain Macha

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Emain Macha, Eamhain Mhacha, Emhain Macha, Emuin Macha, Emania Macha. Name borne both by an 18 acre late Bronze Age hill-fort in Co. Armagh, capital of the Ulaid, and also by the mythical capital of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle, royal seat of Conchobar mac Nessa, which is identified with the hill-fort; one of the most often cited place-names in early Irish literature.

The hill-fort, also called Navan Fort [ModIr. An Eamhain], lies at Navan, 2 miles W of Armagh, Northern Ireland. An immense circular bank, now defaced, and ditch enclose a number of earth and stone works. At the summit rests a univallate tumulus, once a residential site subsequently used for ceremonial purposes. Excavation (1963–71) has established that the round house was begun c.700 BC and rebuilt nine times before 100 BC; the surrounding stockade was rebuilt six times. Emain Macha is probably identical with the Isamnion mentioned in Ptolemy's geography (2nd cent. AD). The survival of the skull of a Barbary ape at Emain Macha implies that the site was known far beyond Ireland. The residence was destroyed, or abandoned, when ravaged by the three Collas from rival areas in Ulster, some time before the advent of Christian evangelization, perhaps in the 5th century. Fergus Foga was the last king of Emain Macha. The abandoned hill-fort continued to be the site of an annual feis [feast] through medieval times.

The Emain Macha of myth and legend is a far grander and more mysterious place than archaeological excavation supports. It contained the fabled palace of Cráebruad [Red Branch], giving us the once popular name for the Ulster Cycle, the ‘Red Branch’ Cycle; the name is echoed in the village of Creeveroe, Co. Armagh. Two queens named Macha are associated with the founding of the fortress. The less well-known is Macha (2), queen of Cimbáeth, whom she dominated and obliged to build a residence in her honour. She marked out the area with her brooch, thus the folk etymology of emain as eo, bodkin + muin, neck = brooch, as authorized by Geoffrey Keating (17th cent.). The better known is Macha (3), wife of Crunniuc mac Agnomain. At a fair in Ulster Crunniuc boasts that his wife could beat a horse-drawn chariot in a foot-race, even though she was pregnant and near to her delivery. Macha cries out to be released from the bargain. A messenger tells her the child will die unless she complies. She succeeds in winning the race, giving birth to twins, a boy and a girl, at the finishing line; some commentators gloss emain as ‘twins’ from this episode. For her humiliation and her birth pangs she curses the men of Ulster with comparable suffering unto nine generations; women, young boys, and Cúchulainn were exempted. Cráebruad was the best-known of the three great halls at Emain Macha; it had nine rooms of red yew, partitioned by walls of bronze, surrounding Conchobar's apartment with silver ceiling and bronze pillars topped with gold. The second, Cráebderg [ruddy branch], contained the treasure-house as well as the heads of slain enemies. The third, Téte Brec [twinkling hoard], held the weapons and armour. Weapons were not to be brought into Emain Macha, and the grounds contained a hospital for sick and wounded warriors. Bainche was the architect or stonemason of Emain Macha; Bairdéne the doorkeeper. The 1960s’ excavations prompted a large-scale scholarly and popular interest in the site. The Navan Centre for visitors, with displays and multi-media show, opened in 1993. See J. P. Mallory, Navan Fort: The Ancient Capital of Ulster (Belfast, 1987). The serial publication Emania: Bulletin of the Navan Research Group (Belfast) began in 1986.

Emain Macha, capital of Ulster according to medieval Irish tradition, derived its name from the goddess Macha, who also underlies the name of Armagh, ‘the heights of Macha’. Its pseudo‐historical foundation date ranges from the 7th to the 4th centuries bc and the demise of its ruling dynasty was assigned to the 4th or 5th centuries ad. It provides a setting for many of Ireland's major early heroic tales such as the Táin.

Anglicized as Navan (<An Eamhain), the site is identified with the modern Navan Fort, 3 miles west of Armagh. The main monument consists of a bank and ditched enclosure c.1,000 feet across. Settlement is known from the neolithic to the Middle Ages, but most particularly c.400–100 bc when its inhabitants erected a series of round houses and larger enclosures. Within one of the structures was found the skull of a Barbary ape from North Africa, the most exotic prehistoric archaeological find in Ireland, and interpreted as evidence of prestige gift‐exchange. About 95 bc the inhabitants erected a ritual structure, formed from concentric rows of 275 timber posts and measuring 130 feet in diameter. This was enigmatically filled with limestone boulders, its timbers set alight, and then covered with a mound of turves, presumably for ritual purposes. Navan was a major ceremonial centre during the prehistoric period, probably the spiritual and political capital of the Iron Age Uluti, after whom the province of Ulster is named.

J. P. Mallory