News
Dún Ailinne Open Day on Sunday, 6th July 2025
The annual Open Day at the Dún Ailinne archaeological excavations will be this coming Sunday, 6th July at Knockaulin, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, from 1pm-4pm. Dr Susan Johnston will give site tours at 1.30pm and 3pm.
This event is a unique opportunity to see and hear an update on the archaeological findings at a place of major historical significance and which is on the Tentative List for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the ancient Royal Sites of Ireland.
A fee of €5 will be charged, which will be donated to a local charity. The event is by kind permission of the Thompson family, as the site is part of their working farm.
Dr Johnston, who is based at the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University, has been investigating the site since 2006. With colleague Dr Suzanne Garrett, she has led teams of American archaeology students on summer digs on Dún Ailinne since 2016, in association with the Black Friary Archaeological School in Co Meath. The students gain practical field experience on the site as well gaining an introduction to the archaeology of Europe. The late Professor Bernard Wailes carried out original excavations on Dún Ailinne in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Dr Johnston was the co-author with him of a book on that work, published
in 2007. In 2008, the 'spear' monument, commissioned from the late sculptor Noel Scullion by Kilcullen Community Action, was dedicated as the centrepiece of the Dún Ailinne Interpretive Park in Kilcullen.
Dún Ailinne is on a private working farmland, not open to the public, and investigations of the site are thanks to the courtesy of the Thompson family.
