A truly extraordinary burial surfaced during work on the Navan railway line in the mid-19th century. Human remains were found, accompanied by a horse’s skull and trappings. This discovery offers a glimpse into the pagan Viking horse cult.
Athlumney horse burial
A very unusual burial was discovered in 1848 during the construction of a railway line on the eastern bank of the River Boyne on the grounds of Athlumney Castle, just south of Navan town in Co. Meath. Accompanying human skeletal remains was the skull of a horse.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Also recovered were over a dozen iron, bronze, silver and gold-gilded artefacts relating to horse trappings. They included a number of highly decorated cast and gilt-copper alloy harness mounts of local manufacture, a bronze-plated iron snaffle bridle bit, buckles, headstalls, poitrels, clasps, chain-links, bronze-plated iron rings and some small bronze buttons.
Some of the artefacts are decorated in interlace and animal ornamentation in a style which was common in early medieval Ireland and Britain. The harness mounts make striking use of the chip-carving technique, which gives a glittering effect. The mounts would have been attached to leather straps, the cruciform-shaped mounts being fitted where straps met or crossed.
Viking-age burials
In 1861, William Wilde, father of poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, wrote a report on the Athlumney grave goods in his Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities of Animal Materials and Bronze in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, where he described the site near Navan as a “battle-pit”. The grave has since been variously identified as that of a pagan Viking horseman, a passing warrior or mercenary, or that of a female.
Sign up to our newsletter
However, reports seem to indicate that the grave contained the disarticulated remains of more than one individual – possibly three or more inhumations. Although they were not cremated, a large spread of dark soil and charcoal was found in the vicinity of the burials.
>>> READ MORE: Sundials: telling the time in medieval Ireland
The form and style of the grave goods point to an 8th or, more likely, 9th-century date for the interments. Similar harness mounts and bridle bits have been found in 9th-century graves in western Norway.
The horse was a high-status animal in Viking-age Scandinavia, used for agricultural and transport purposes but was also seen as a symbol of fertility and was connected with the Viking gods Freyr and Odin. Odin’s horse was the eight-legged Sleipnir.
Given the inclusion of the horse’s skull in the grave at Athlumney and the likely 9th-century date of the associated grave goods, it can be assumed that this site reflects pagan Viking mortuary practices relating to the cult of the horse.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
The horse, in this case, was probably intentionally and ceremoniously slaughtered for burial with the dead at the site in Athlumney. The presence of the horse’s skull and ornamented horse equipment, therefore, indicate the elite social status and prestige of these deceased individuals.
Interestingly, saddles and stirrups seem to have been introduced to Ireland via the Vikings. Saddle arches and stirrups were found in Viking contexts in the excavations in Dublin. An Irish word for saddle, “sadhall” derives from the old Norse “sǫðull”.
Other horse burials
While there is evidence for the sacrificial slaughter of horses and their burial in Scandinavia and parts of Scotland, horse burials were particularly common in Iceland, where the horse cult was especially strong. In comparison, the evidence for horse burials in Ireland is fairly sparse, often deriving from poorly recorded excavations undertaken in the 19th or early 20th centuries.
Horses’ bones and teeth were found in Viking burials at Islandbridge, Co. Dublin and Cloghermore, Co. Kerry. Another example of a horse burial comes from Co. Kildare, where a complete horse skeleton was found, but while the grave goods were early medieval in date, they were not Viking in character. There are also a small number of prehistoric and post-medieval examples of horse burials in Ireland.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Viking activity in Meath
There is some evidence of Viking attacks in Co. Meath and their involvement in local struggles in this region. While the grave at Athlumney is most commonly associated with a band of raiders or a passing fleet, some researchers argue that the burials relate to a Viking settlement in the Navan area.
For example, Eamonn P. Kelly and Mark Clinton argued that earthworks found in the vicinity of the medieval castle at Athlumney could be a previously unidentified Viking longphort known as Dún Dubchomair. Next to the earthwork is a small mound, probably an Anglo-Norman motte, which was built on the site of this possible earlier Viking settlement.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Dún Dubchomair was described in the late medieval Life of St Findchua (i.e. Fionnchú of Brigown, Co. Cork). This account tells us that a Viking fleet at Dún Dubchomair refused to cease their plundering activities and was consequently attacked by the saint, along with the king of Tara and a band of clergymen. The Vikings were defeated and Dún Dubchomair passed to St Findchua.
Viewing the Athlumney hoard
William Wilde explained that antiquarian William Wakeman was responsible for acquiring the Athlumney artefacts for the Royal Irish Academy. Some pieces mentioned in contemporary reports of the Athlumney hoard are now missing, but the surviving artefacts are permanently displayed in the National Museum of Ireland.
Sign up to our newsletter
Subscribe to the Irish Heritage News newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest heritage stories.
READ NOW
➤ 2,000-year-old Bellaghy bog body discovered during excavations in Derry
➤ Fionn Folklore: new oral heritage site showcases the Fianna’s lesser-known tales
Armstrong, E.C.R. 1922. ‘Some Irish antiquities of unknown use’. The Antiquaries Journal 2.1, pp.6-12.
Clinton, M. 2000. ‘Settlement dynamics in Co Meath the Kingdom of Loegaire’. Peritia 14, pp.386-88.
Kelly, E. P. 2015. ‘The longphort in Viking-Age Ireland: the archaeological evidence’. In H.B. Clarke and R. Johnson (eds) The Vikings in Ireland and Beyond: before and after the battle of Clontarf. Four Courts Press for the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland: Dublin, pp.55-92.
McCormick, F. 2007. ‘The horse in early Ireland’. Anthropozoologica 42.1, pp.85-104.
Navan and District Historical Society.
[http://www.navanhistory.ie/
index.php?page=viking-burial]
Rathbone, S., Blauvelt, D. and McDonald T. 2016. ‘Excavation of a farm animal burial ground at Dooagh Beach, Achill Island, Co. Mayo’. Journal of Irish Archaeology 25, pp.123-40.
Ryan. C. 2022. Heritage Guide No. 96: Medieval Navan and its environs. Archaeology Ireland.
Sikora, M. 2003/04. ‘Diversity in Viking Age horse burial: a comparative study of Norway, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland’. Journal of Irish Archaeology 12/13, pp.87-109.
Wallace, P. and Ó Floinn, R. (eds) 2002. Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish Antiquities. Gill and Macmillan: Dublin.
Wilde, W. R. 1861. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities of Animal Materials and Bronze in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Hodges, Smith, & Co.: Dublin.
Youngs, S. 1989. The Work of Angels: masterpieces of Celtic metalwork, 6th–9th centuries AD. British Museum Publications: London, no. 113.
