The Hill of Tara, The Skryne Valley, Meath, Ireland

The Irish name for the hill of Tara, Teamhair na Rí, or "Hill of the Kings" gave is the English version for the name of the hill, Tara. Tara looms large Hill of Taraeven now in the minds and hearts of Irish people all over the world. It's about 7.5 miles south of Navan Fort or Emain Macha. Archaeologically, the history of Tara as a major sacred site goes back to 4000 B.C.E. Tara was the site of battles, burials, and and a variety of social-sacral rituals. It is in a number of ways comparable to Stonehenge in terms of Tara's importance as a ritual site for Ireland. Although Tara itself is on the top of a hill, the highest point for miles, it is best to think of the entire area as a complex of ritual sites going back thousands of years.

There are a large number of ruins and pre-medieval structures that make up the complex—more than 30. These structures include:

• On the crest, an oval and still clearly visible Iron Age stone enclosure, known as Rath na Rí (The Fort of the Kings) and the Royal Enclosure. An area of a bit more than 850 feet is enclosed by the typical ditch and bank of Iron age Ireland.
• Inside the Rath na Rí are two linked enclosures, a ring-fort, and a ring-barrow, identified in the context of early Irish literature as Tige Chormac, or the "House of Cormac" and the Forradh or Royal Seat.
• In the center of the Forradh is a pillar-stone, traditionally identified as the Lia Fáil, or "Stone of Destiny."
• To the north is the small Neolithic passage tomb referred to in Irish texts as Dumha na Giall or "Mound of the Hostages," associated in myth with Niall of the Nine Hostages, but which was constructed between 2500 and 3000 B.C.E.
• To the south of the Rathe na Rí is a smaller ring-fort known as Rath Logaire, or "Logair's Fort," where the hero and the king who according to legend was the last pagan king of Ireland, is described in early Irish literature to have been buried, in an upright position.

In Irish myths and medieval texts, the Hill of Tara is closely associated with rituals around kingship and the sovereignty of Ireland. The Lia F´il, believed by many to be the pillar stone on the top of the hill, was associated with Irish kingship rituals; it was said to roar if the king were truly the king, with the blessings of fertility, truth, and sovereignty traditionally associated with Irish kingship. In the Lebor Gabala Eire, the Hill of Tara is said to be the seat of the former inhabitants of Ireland, the Tuatha De Dannan, who, after losing a war to the human "Son of Mile," retreated to lands beneath Tara and the other hills or Ireland.

Unfortunately, all of the history—most of it covered by tons of earth and sod and never truly excavated—is endangered by the proposed construction of a major four-lane toll road, the M3. While the actual route is still partly in dispute, construction for the new road began in 2005 and is now well underway. The haphazard archaeological investigation done as time allowed when the swathe for the road was cut uncovered a treasure trove of archaeology; Neolithic field structures, walls, and cairns, bronze age barrows, an early iron age henge, early christian graves and post-medieval structures, all of which were ruthlessly destroyed without proper research, investigation or preservation. This is the equivalent of removing the Grand Canyon, or Stonehenge, or Egypt's Valley of the Kings, or the Acropolis, in order to build a highway. Smithsonian Magazine (March, 2009) identified the entire Hill of Tara complex as one of the world's most endangered sites. You can follow the ongoing protests here at Tarawatch.org and SaveTara.