What do you know about Tara?

The Hill of Tara (Irish: Teamhair or Cnoc na Teamhrach) is a hill and ancient ceremonial and burial site near Skryne in County Meath, Ireland. Tradition identifies the hill as the inauguration place and seat of the High Kings of Ireland; it also appears in Irish mythology. Tara consists of numerous monuments and earthworks—dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age—including a passage tomb (the "Mound of the Hostages"), burial mounds, round enclosures, a standing stone (believed to be the Lia Fáil or "Stone of Destiny"), and a ceremonial avenue. There is also a church and graveyard on the hill. Tara forms part of a larger ancient landscape and Tara itself is a protected national monument under the care of the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Irish Government.

The 11th-century Lebor Gabála Érenn ('The Book of Invasions') says that Tara was the seat of the high kings of Ireland from the far past until the time of writing. However, there is no evidence that the institution of high kingship conferred authority over the whole island.

The earliest written records say that high kings were inaugurated there, and the "Senchas Már" legal text (written some time after 600) specified that the king must drink ale and symbolically marry the goddess Maeve (Medb) as part of the ceremony. The last high king to observe the pagan inauguration ritual of marrying Medb, the goddess of the land, was Diarmait mac Cerbaill. He is also seen as the first high king in the Christian era.

The Mound of the Hostages has a passage aligned with the sunrise around the times of Imbolc (the Gaelic festival marking the start of spring) and Samhain (the festival marking the start of winter). The mound's passage is shorter than the long entryways of monuments like Newgrange, which makes it less precise in providing alignments with the Sun. Martin Brennan, in The Stones of Time, states that the daily changes in the position of a 13-foot (4 m) long sunbeam are more than enough to determine specific dates.

In Irish mythology, Tara is said to have been the capital of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who are based on the gods of pagan Ireland. It says that when the Milesians (the first Gaels) arrived, Tara became the place from which the kings of Mide ruled Ireland. There is much debate among historians as to how far the kings' influence spread. The high kingship of the whole island was only established to an effective degree by Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid (Malachy I) in the 9th century. Irish pseudohistorians of the Middle Ages made it stretch back into prehistory. Atop the hill stands a stone pillar believed to be the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) on which the high kings were crowned; legends suggest that the stone would roar three times if the chosen one was the rightful king (compare with the Scottish Stone of Scone).

During the rebellion of 1798, United Irishmen formed a camp on the hill but were attacked and defeated by British troops on 26 May 1798 and the Lia Fáil was allegedly moved to commemorate the 400 rebels who died on the hill that day. In 1843, the Irish nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell hosted a peaceful political demonstration at Tara in favour of Irish self-governance which drew over 750,000 people, highlighting the lasting significance of Tara.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Tara was vandalised by British Israelists who thought that the British were part of the Lost Tribes of Israel and that the hill contained the Ark of the Covenant. A group of British Israelists, led by retired Anglo-Indian judge Edward Wheeler Bird, set about excavating the site having paid off the landowner, Gustavus Villiers Briscoe. Irish cultural nationalists held a mass protest over the destruction of the national heritage site, including Douglas Hyde, Arthur Griffith, Maud Gonne, George Moore and W. B. Yeats. Hyde tried to interrupt the dig but was ordered away by a man wielding a rifle. Maud Gonne made a more flamboyant protest by relighting an old bonfire that Briscoe had lit to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII. She began to sing Thomas Davis's song "A Nation Once Again" by the fire, much to the consternation of the landlord and the police.

British Prime Minister John Russell inherited the Tara estate during the 19th century. The Irish government bought the southern part of the hill in 1952, and the northern part in 1972.

The religious order Missionary Society of St. Columban had its international headquarters at Dalgan Park, just north of the Hill of Tara. The order was named after the Saint who was born in the Ancient Kingdom of Meath. The land Dalgan Park lies on was once owned by the kings of Tara. The seminary is also situated on the path of the Slighe Midluachra, one of the five ancient roads that meet at Tara. Opus Dei has its national institute sited at Lismullen, next to Tara, in what used to be known as the Gabhra Valley.

According to Irish mythology, during the third century AD a great battle known as the Cath Gabhra took place between high king Cairbre Lifechair, son of Cormac Mac Airt, and the Fianna led by Fionn Mac Cumhaill. The Fianna were heavily defeated; many of the graves of the Fianna covered the Rath of the Gabhra, most notably the grave of Oscar, son of Oisín.