This talk looks at some of the most important, later-prehistoric and early Medieval sites in north Ulster, starting with Aileach outside Derry/Londonderry – perhaps the pre-eminent royal site in the northern half of Ireland in the Early Medieval period – and progressing via the Giant’s Sconce, to the capital of the Dal Riada at Dunseverick on the north Antrim coast. The lecture will ask when and by whom these great capitals were built, what function they performed and how they came to be abandoned, as political fortunes ebbed and flowed.

Dr Cormac McSparron is a Research Fellow with the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, Queen’s University Belfast. He has a wide range of research interests, including the inter-relationship of prehistoric and early historic Ireland and Scotland, the emergence of complex societies, archaeological theory and the archaeology of migration.

This talk was delivered as part of the Jubilee Talks series, part of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Museum Services programme to mark the platinum jubilee of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. This programme has received financial support from The Executive Office as part of the District Councils Good Relations Programme and supports the T:BUC strategy (Together Building a United Community).