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The Danes Cast is a linear earthwork located near Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. This prehistoric monument consists of an elongated bank-and-ditch construction characteristic of Bronze Age or Iron Age land divisions in the British Isles. The earthwork follows the natural contours of the landscape, a common feature of such monuments which often marked territorial boundaries, stock routes or defensive lines across the settled countryside.
The Danes Cast sits upon bedrock of Palaeogene age, comprising mafic extrusive rocks—ancient lava flows and volcanic tuff deposits laid down during the early Tertiary period. These dark, dense volcanic materials would have presented a challenging substrate for construction, and the earthwork's presence here demonstrates the significant labour investment required to create such a permanent feature in the landscape.
The monument is protected by the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities under reference number 7720, recognising its archaeological significance. Like many Irish linear earthworks, the Danes Cast remains an important testimony to prehistoric land use and social organisation, though its precise chronology and original function await fuller archaeological investigation.
The danes cast. linear earthwork is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 7720. View the official record →
The Danes Cast is a linear earthwork located near Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 7720.
The danes cast. linear earthwork dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a linear earthwork. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
The danes cast. linear earthwork is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 7720.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Platform rath (6.4 km), Platform rath (7.6 km), Two conjoined raths (8.6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of The danes cast. linear earthwork's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
The danes cast. linear earthwork stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Palaeogene, bedrock that formed in the Paleogene. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.