Woodlands in the early Medieval Period
In a wider context woodlands were important for grazing, leaves and acorns. There are many accounts in the annals of bumper crops of mast (acorns) that pigs thrive on. Woodlands provided the habitats for foxes, badgers, wolves, deer, wild boar, hares squirrels and the woodland birds. The trees themselves provide much wild fruit and berries. Fruit bearing trees were known as briguid caille - 'hospitallers of the forest' and is recorded as a legal term in the 8th century law tract Bretha Comaithchesa, the Laws of Neighbourhood (O'Croinin 1995, 865 and Nelson and Walsh, 1993, 14-6 Mythum 1992, 201) Severe penalties were enforced for damage, classified according to the importance of the trees, i.e. airig fedo - 'noble trees' and aithig fedo ' common trees'. The penalty (dire) for felling a'noble tree was a seoit, i.e. two and a half milch cows, for cutting a 'commoner tree' the fine was a sheep. In the earlier Triads of Ireland, then death penalty was demanded for the felling of two of the noble trees.
How the site was found by Tom Coffey.
Discovery of the Amphitheatre (Teamhair's precinct)
My name is Tom Coffey, I had little knowledge of archaeology when I inherited this farm from my uncles' whose names were Kilbride, while doing some fencing, driving stakes, I heard a most uncommon resonating sound in the area of the central mound, this puzzled me so I investigaged further using history books and talking with archaeologists, I found that in all likelihood these unusual resonating sounds were an old form of loud speaker built for the ceremonies and inaugurations. They were created by passageways underneath the earth.
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