A companion volume to The Mound of the Hostages, Tara, this report presents the results of Seán P. Ó Ríordáin’s unpublished excavations carried out in the 1950s at the Rath of the Synods.

The site had a complex sequence of ritual, funerary and domestic activity which is divided into four main phases. The earliest is undated but is represented by a ditched enclosure that may be of the Bronze Age or Iron Age, while the second dates from the late Iron Age and consists of a series of ritual or ceremonial enclosures with strong parallels at Emain Macha and Dún Ailinne.