Welcome to the homepage of the Navan Research Group

The Navan Research Group (NRG) was formed in the spring of 1986, when quarrying threatened to destroy the archaeological remains of Navan Fort (Emain Macha), Ulster's ancient capital. The campaign that focussed attention on the iminent threat to the site aroused massive public interest at the time.
The various members of the NRG, drawn from the Queen's University, the Historic Monuments and Buildings branch of the NI Department of the Environment, and the Ulster Museum, all shared a research interest in the Navan complex and related monuments. Consequently, we believed that both our own interests and those of the general public would be best served by the formation of the Navan Research Group. The primary functions of the NRG are to coordinate and undertake research into the Navan complex and related monuments, promote and assist the research of others who are similarly engaged, and to inform both our colleagues and the general public of current research.
In order to fulfil this latter function, the NRG publishes its own journal, Emania.

Current Issue

Emania is the premier interdisciplinary journal publishing original research on Ireland's Celtic past. The main focus of the journal is on the Ulster Cycle of tales, the ancient 'Royal sites' of Ireland and the archaeology and environment of Ireland in the period from the Late Bronze Age until the Early Mediaeval period. The current issue, volume 26, focuses on the material culture from the Navan complex and the Ulster Cycle, on Pictish symbols as well as on the palaeogenetic map of early medieaval to early modern Ireland. Volume 26 was launched at the Ulster Archaeological Society's 2023 Discovery! conference at Belfast on 18 November 2023.