Editing Belfast (section)

=== Early settlements ===
The site of Belfast has been occupied since the [[Bronze Age]]. The [[Giants Ring, Belfast|Giant's Ring]], a 5,000-year-old [[henge]], is located near the city,<ref name=":22" />{{rp|42–45}}<ref>{{cite news |title=A walk on the outskirts of Belfast: Giant's Ring Trail, Northern Ireland |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=12 May 2012 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/may/12/giants-ring-trail-belfast-walk |access-date=1 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030002902/http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/may/12/giants-ring-trail-belfast-walk |archive-date=30 October 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the remains of [[Iron Age]] [[hill fort]]s can still be seen in the surrounding hills. At the beginning of the 14th century, [[Papacy|Papal]] tax rolls record two churches: the "Chapel of Dundela" at Knock (Irish: {{lang|ga|[[wikt:cnoc|cnoc]]}}, meaning "hill") in the east,<ref>{{cite book |last=Reeves |first=Rev. William |url=https://archive.org/stream/ecclesiasticalan00reev#page/6/mode/2up/search/ford |title=Ecclesiastical antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, consisting of a taxation of those dioceses, compiled in the year MCCCVI; with notes and illustrations |publisher=Hodges and Smith |year=1847 |location=Dublin |page=7 |access-date=31 March 2013 }}</ref> connected by some accounts to the 7th-century evangelist [[Columba|St. Colmcille]],<ref name=":21">{{Cite book |last=Maguire |first=W. A. |title=Belfast |date=1993 |publisher=Keele University Press |isbn=1-85331-060-3 |pages= }}</ref>{{rp|11}}and, the "Chapel of the Ford", which may have been a successor to a much older parish church on the present [[Shankill Road|Shankill ''(Seanchill'', "Old Church") Road]],<ref name=":22" />{{rp|63–64}} dating back to the 9th,<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 January 2022 |title=150 years of history and beyond |url=https://www.qub.ac.uk/News/Allnews/2022/150yearsofhistoryandbeyond.html |access-date=7 March 2024 |website=qub.ac.uk }}</ref> and possibly to [[Saint Patrick|St. Patrick]] in the mid 5th, century.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shankill 455AD |url=http://greatershankillpartnership.org/shankill/history.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402144113/http://greatershankillpartnership.org/shankill/history.html |archive-date=2 April 2015 |access-date=22 December 2013 |website=Greater Shankill Partnership }}</ref>

A [[Normans in Ireland|Norman]] settlement at the ford, comprising the parish church (now [[St George's Church, Belfast|St. George's]]), a watermill, and a small fort,<ref name=":162">{{Cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Philip |title=Belfast 400: People, Place and History |isbn=978-1-84631-635-7 |editor-last=Connolly |editor-first=S. J. |location=Liverpool |publication-date=2012 |pages=91–122 |chapter=The Medieval Settlement }}</ref> was an outpost of [[Carrickfergus Castle]]. Established in the late 12th century, {{convert|11|mi|km}} out along the north shore of the Lough, Carrickfergus was to remain the principal English foothold in the north-east until the [[scorched earth|scorched- earth]] [[Nine Years' War (Ireland)|Nine Years' War]] at the end of the 16th century broke the remaining Irish power, the [[O'Neill dynasty|O'Neills]].<ref name=":202">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Basil C. S. |title=Belfast: The Origin and Growth of an Industrial City |publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation |year=1967 |editor-last=Beckett |editor-first=J. C. |location=London |pages=14–25 |chapter=The Birth of Belfast |editor-last2=Glasscock |editor-first2=R. E. }}</ref>