Hillforts, Warfare and Society in Bronze Age Ireland

William O’Brien and James O’Driscoll investigate the relationship between hillforts, warfare and political power in Middle and Late Bronze Age Ireland. Their project combines remote sensing, GIS landscape analysis, archaeological survey and excavation across ten hillforts in southern Ireland, including the remarkable concentration around Baltinglass in County Wicklow.

The evidence places these monumental sites within a landscape of expanding settlement, regional competition and increasingly visible social hierarchy. Hillfort construction, destruction, bronze weaponry and territorial organisation are used to explore the emergence of chiefdom-level power and a broader warrior culture. At more than five hundred pages, this is a substantial archaeological research volume rather than a general history of Bronze Age Ireland.