Navan Fort

Navan Fort (Old Irish: Emaın Macha ([ˈeṽənʲ ˈṽaxə]), Modern Irish: Eamhain Mhacha ([ˈaw̃nʲ ˈw̃axə]) is an ancient monument in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. According to tradition it was one of the great royal sites of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland and the capital of the Ulaid. Severed heads of their enemies were said to be kept here. It is a large circular enclosure—marked by a bank and ditch—with a circular mound and the remains of a ring barrow in the middle. Archeological investigations show that there were once buildings on the site, including a huge roundhouse-like structure. The site is believed to have had a pagan ceremonial purpose. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, "the [Eamhain Mhacha] of myth and legend is a far grander and mysterious place than archeological excavation supports".

The name Eamhain Mhacha is thought to mean "the pair of Macha" or "the twins of Macha". 'Navan' is an anglicisation of the Irish An Eamhain.

Location and description

The site is a State Care Historic Monument in the townland of Navan, in Armagh City and District Council area. It is on a low hill about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) west of Armagh (at grid ref. area H847 452). The site consists of a circular enclosure 250 metres (820 ft) in diameter, marked by a bank and ditch. Oddly, the ditch is on the inside, suggesting it was not built for defence.

Navan

Navan (/ˈnævən/; Irish: an Uaimh) is the county town of County Meath in Ireland. In 2011, the town and its environs had a population of 28,559; making it the 5th largest town, and 10th largest urban settlement, in Ireland.

History and name

Navan is a Norman foundation: Hugh de Lacy, who was granted the Lordship of Meath in 1172, awarded the Barony of Navan to one of his knights, Jocelyn de Angulo, who built a fort there from which the town developed.

Navan is one of the world's few towns that has a palindromic name. Variants of Navan had been in use since Norman times. It is thought to come from Irish an Uamhain, meaning "the cave/souterrain", a variant of its more common Irish name an Uaimh. In 1922, when the Irish Free State was founded, an Uaimh was adopted as the town's only official name. However, it failed to gain popularity in English and in 1971 the name was reverted to Navan in English.

Economy

Tara Mine, Europe's largest lead and zinc mine is located in Navan. The town traditionally was famous for carpets (Navan Carpets closed in 2003) and for a thriving furniture industry (Beechmount Home Park). Both are now in decline, or have ceased, as a result of the move away from manufacture to cheaper locations like Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, Navan had rapidly expanded with the Celtic Tiger to become a large dormitory town due to its proximity to Dublin. Following the Global economic crisis and the collapse of the Celtic tiger in 2008 Navan once again declined. Employment in the mining industry remained stable however tertiary industries reliant on consumer spending suffered.

Navan (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Navan was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons until 1800.

Members of Parliament

1692–1801

References

List of craters on Mars: H-N

This is a list of craters on Mars. There are hundreds of thousands of impact crater on Mars, but only some of them have names. This list here only contains named Martian craters starting with the letter H – N (see also lists for A – G and O – Z).

Large Martian craters (greater than 60 km in diameter) are named after famous scientists and science fiction authors; smaller ones (less than 60 km in diameter) get their names from towns on Earth. Craters cannot be named for living people, and small crater names are not intended to be commemorative - that is, a small crater isn't actually named after a specific town on Earth, but rather its name comes at random from a pool of terrestrial place names, with some exceptions made for craters near landing sites. Latitude and longitude are given as planetographic coordinates with west longitude.

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N

See also

References

External links