History of Cashel

fertile plain, called the Golden Vale. The top of this eminence is crowned by a group of remarkable ruins. This ancient metropolis has lost its importance and of its population fell to under 3,000. Originally known as Fairy Hill, or Sid-Druim, the "Rock" was, in pagan times, the dun, or castle, of the ancient Eoghnacht Chiefs of Munster. In Gaelic Caiseal denotes a circular stone fort and is the name of other places in Ireland. The "Book of Rights" suggests that the name is derived from Cais-il, i.e. "tribute stone", because the Munster tribes paid tribute on the Rock. Here Corc, the grandfather of Aengus Mac Natfraich, erected a fort, and Cashel subsequently became the capital of Munster. Like Tara and Armagh it was a celebrated court, and at the time of St. Patrick claimed supremacy over all the royal duns of the province, when Aengus ruled as King of Cashel.

In the 5th century, the Eóganachta dynasty founded their capital on and around the rock. In the times following, many kings of Munster reigned here. Saint Patrick is believed to have baptized Cashel's third king, Aengus. In 977 the DálgCais usurper, Brian Boru, was crowned here as the first non-Eóghanacht king of Cashel and Munster in over five hundred years. In 1101 his great-grandson, King MuircheartachUaBriain, gave the place to the bishop of Limerick, which also denied it forever to the MacCarthys, the senior branch of the Eóganachta. The bishops had a famous school in Cashel and sent priests all over the continent, especially to Regensburg in Germany,