Beal Boru, the fort of King Brian Boru

King Brian wanted me to share with you the majesty of his fort, Beal Boru.  King Brian’s fort is located in a serene and spectacular setting – it stands on a spur of land where a lake Lough Derg narrows into the river Shannon. 

The name of this fort translates into the “port of the cattle tribute” because King Brian paid his respects to us cows!  Cattle designated as tributes for the chiefs of the land were driven across the river Shannon at this point.  These chiefs were King Brian’s greatest knights.  He kept them close and gave them cattle as their due respect. 

I told Brian that I remembered reading that archeologists have recovered over 800 stone implements – like stone hammers, stone axes, and stone tools for fishing – have been found in this area.  Also, some coins and pottery shards have been found.  Therefore, Ireland today still knows of the importance of this area.  I assured him that even when some Normans tried building a castle in the place of Beal Boru a few hundred years after the time of King Brian, the Irish drove them off before they could complete it.  Although we can only guess what it looks like, artists have tried to draw a sketch of what they believe the stronghold to look like.

And this next picture is the beauty of the area in which the fort was located.

And this was only his fort, he next told me about his castle Kincora or Ceann Coradh.