History of the British Isles

• 3500 – 3000 First appearance of long barrows and chambered tombs in Dorset, England, the primitive burial rite known as “corpse exposure” was practiced, wherein bodies were left in the open air to decompose or be consumed by animals and birds.
• 3100 – years ago. The earliest phase of Stonehenge construction begins.
• 2958 Cessair she was the leader of the first inhabitants of Ireland.
• To escape an oncoming Flood,they sail to Ireland however, when they attempt to land, ships are lost. The only survivors are Cessair a hundred and forty-nine other women, and three men.
• The men are shared out evenly among the women. However, two soon die. Fintán is left with all the women but is unable to cope and so he flees. When the Flood comes, Fintán is the only one to survive. He becomes a salmon and later an eagle and a hawk, living for 5,500 years after the Flood, whence he becomes a man again and recounts Ireland’s history.

2680 The second group of people to settle in Ireland, the Muintir Partholóin (people of Partholón) arrive. They are responsible for introducing such things as farming, cooking, brewing and buildings. After some years, they all die of plague in a single week.

Partholón was the son of Sera, a king of Greece, and fled his homeland after murdering his father and mother. He lost his left eye in the attack on his parents. He and his followers set off from Greece, sailed via Sicily, around Iberia, and arrived in Ireland from the west, having travelled for two and a half months.

They battle and defeat the Fomorian Titans, who are led by Cichol Gricenchos, at Magh Ithe, in the first battle fought in Ireland.

• 2650 The Muintir Partholóin all die from plague
• 2600 BCE Stonehenge begins to take on the form of its final phase. The wooden posts are replaced with that of bluestone. It begins taking on an increasingly complex setup—including altar, portal, station stones, etc.—and shows consideration of solar alignments.
• 2500 years ago. the construction of the stone circle at Stonehenge begins and continues for the next five hundred years
• 2350 Nemed is the leader of the third group of people to settle in Ireland, who are referred to as the Muintir Nemid, “people of Nemed”. They arrive thirty years after their predecessors, the Muintir Partholóin, had died out.

The Muintir Nemid set sail from the Caspian Sea.

Nemed won four battles against the Fomorian Titans. However, nine years after arriving in Ireland, Nemed dies of plague along with thousands of his people.

The remaining Muintir Nemid are then oppressed by the Fomorians Morc and Conand, who lived in Conand’s Glass Tower, on an island off the coast. Each Samhain, they must give two thirds of their children, their corn and their milk to the Fomorians. After many years, the Muintir Nemid rise up against the Fomorians and attack the Conand’s Tower with 60,000 warriors (30,000 on sea and 30,000 on land), defeating Conand. Morc then attacks, and almost all of the Nemedians are killed in a tidal wave. Only one ship escapes. The island would again be empty for another 200 years.

• 2104 – The Ogygian Deluge occurs.
• 2061- Partholón arrives in Ireland
• 2000 completion of Stonehenge.
• 1934- 1897 – Firbolg High Kings rule Ireland
• 1897 Tuatha Dé Danann arrive in Ireland.

They came from four otherworld cities The Cities of Danu Falias, Gorias, Murias and Finias–where they acquired their magical skills and attributes. Arriving in ships on the coast of the Conmaicne Mara’s territory. They immediately burnt the ships “so that they should not think of retreating to them; and the smoke and the mist that came from the vessels filled the neighboring land and air. Therefore it was conceived that they had arrived in clouds of mist”.

Led by their king, Nuada, they fought the First Battle of Magh Tuireadh on the west coast, in which they defeated and displaced the native Fir Bolg, who then inhabited Ireland.

The Dagda was worshipped leader of the pantheon of gods and was commonly known as the ‘father of all’. Later the Tuatha Dé Danann were driven back to the otherworld  by invaders and thereafter inhabited their world of the hills and mountains.

• 1897–1890 BC Bres Fomorian Tuatha Dé Danann High King of Ireland
• 1890–1870 Nuada Tuatha Dé Danann High King of Ireland
• 1870–1830 Lugh Tuatha Dé Danann High King of Ireland
• 1731 BC Nemedians arrived in Ireland
• 1700 Milesian High Kings arrive and drive the Tuatha Dé Danann back to the cities of Danu.
• 1447-1407 BC Lugh Tuatha Dé Danann High King of Ireland
• 1407-1337 – The Dagda Tuatha Dé Danann High King of Ireland
• 1337-1327 Delbáeth Tuatha Dé Danann High King of Ireland
• 1327-1317 Fiacha Tuatha Dé Danann High King of Ireland
• 1317-1287 Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine Tuatha Dé Danann High Kings of Ireland
• 1287 -80 Milesian High Kings of Ireland
• 1100 Brutus, grandson of Aeneas, leads a group of Trojan exiles to Britain. High Kingship of Brutus, followed by Locrinus, Gwendolen, Maddan, Mempricius, Ebraucus and Brutus Greenshield.
• 1000 – 900 Earliest hill-top earthworks (“hillforts”) begin to appear,also fortified farmsteads; increasing sophistication of arts and crafts, particularly in decorative personal and animal ornamentation.
• 863 Bath founded

Iron Age (800 BC – 100 AD)

• 660 BC – Reign of Queen Medb of Ireland
• 390 BC – Belinus and Brennus, kings of Britain lay siege on the Roman army and sack Rome
• 285 – High Kingship in Britain of Beldgabred.
• 225 – High Kingship in Britain of Redon.
• 110 High Kingship in Britain of Beli Mawr the Great, who married Don, daughter of Math. They have one daughter, Penarddun who will later marry Llyr. Other children are Amathaon, Nudd, Govannon, Aranrhod, Gilvaethwy and Gwydion. Beli Mawr is claimed as the founder of the Deisi, later rulers of the kingdom of Dyfed. His eldest son, Aballac, is claimed as the ancestor of Coel Hen, of Ebruac. His second child, daughter Lweriadd, marries Llyr Lleddiarth, who is claimed as the founder of Gwent.
• 55 Julius Ceasar of Rome invaded the Celtic Britian.
• 12 The death of Cúchulainn marked the end of the Red Branch Knights dominance. As a boy he killed a fierce hound belonging to a man called Culann. The hound was said to be as big as a horse and it took three chains and three men on each chain to hold him.