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A recently discovered large hilltop settlement could challenge the theory that the Vikings built the first towns in Ireland, a researcher has said.

Dr Dirk Brandherm and his colleagues have identified more than 600 suspected houses in the Brusselstown Ring making it, to date, the largest nucleated settlement ever discovered in the entirety of prehistoric Britain and Ireland.

The settlement, which is thought to have emerged at about 1200 BC (the Late Bronze Age), is located within a region called the Baltinglass Hillfort Cluster in the south-western edge of the Wicklow Mountains.

It is among the 13 large hilltop enclosures spread across the mountain range where there are structures dating back to the Neolithic period and Early Bronze Age.

The findings were recently published within Antiquity, a peer-reviewed journal of world archaeology.

The study states: “Given its exceptional size, density of occupation and architectural complexity, Brusselstown Ring represents a unique case within both the Baltinglass hillfort cluster and more widely within the Atlantic Archipelago.”

Survey work has been conducted over the last two decades but researchers believed critical questions about “the date, development and function of both the enclosing elements and the internal settlement remain unanswered”.

Therefore, researchers initiated test excavations in 2024.

“The available evidence indicates their occupation mainly during the Late Bronze Age, with continued use or reuse of some house platforms in the Early Iron Age.

“This makes Brusselstown Ring the largest nucleated settlement agglomeration by far in prehistoric Ireland and Britain,” the study highlighted.

Dr Brandherm, a reader in prehistoric archaeology at Queen’s University Belfast, said the Brusselstown Ring is significant due to “the large number and the concentration of roundhouses” in one spot.

The image archaeologists had is that during the Bronze Age the settlement structure was based on small hamlets (one to five dwellings) and there were no villages or towns.

In 2002, about 74 roundhouses dating back to the Bronze Age were discovered during the Corrstown excavation in Northern Ireland.

The researcher said Corrstown was the first village from that era, but the Brusselstown Ring is “a different ball game altogether”.

The Brusselstown Ring discovery questions the idea that the first towns on the island of Ireland were founded by the Vikings, according to the researcher.

“Because if you’ve got more than 600 roundhouses, and potentially a large stone built cistern, that’s no longer a village,” Dr Brandherm told BBC News NI.

“We’re talking a proto-town of sorts, and that’s 2000 years before the Vikings.”

There are two widely spaced ramparts (defensive walls) encompassing the enclosure.

These ramparts do not only enclose its own summit but also that of the nearby Spinas Hill One – meaning it is one of the very few hillforts in Europe to span more than a single hill

Through the use of aerial surveys and photogrammetry mapping, it is suspected that 98 of the house platforms were inside the inner enclosure and more than 500 were located between the two ramparts.

Dr Brandherm said: “Based on the data that we presently have all the house platforms would appear to date to the same period.”

A stone-lined, flat-floored chamber was also discovered near one of the trenches at the site.

Dr Brandherm described it as being “boat-shaped” and “slightly larger than a round house”.

It appeared to have been fed by a stream from a outcrop uphill, and archaeologists believe it may have been a water cistern to store fresh water.

Further samples in the coming months will determine if the cistern dates back to the same period as the roundhouses.

He said, if confirmed, the discovery is a “first in Ireland”, as there are similar structures from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in France and Spain.

Four test excavations were completed by archaeologists to understand the site’s occupation.

The tests ranged from six-to-12m in diameter to represent house platforms of different sizes.

The idea was to investigate whether architectural differences in the platforms would signify if there were social or economic stratification within the community.

Dr Brandherm said the smaller houses were about four to five metres in diameter, with the larger ones being 11-12m in diameter.

“But the fact that we do have different sizes it you know it begs the question if there is some social differentiation sitting behind that,” he said.

However, based on the current data, Dr Brandherm said it cannot be confirmed whether there was a social hierarchy in the settlement.

Before this, the largest cluster of ancient settlements was in Mullaghfarna in County Sligo which is thought to have contained more than 150 houses during the middle Stone Age period of 3300-2900 BC and in the later Bronze Age between 1200-900 BC.

The research stated that future work at Brusselstown will “focus on confirming the nature and the date of the potential cistern, identifying structural features of the prehistoric roundhouses and establishing the nature and chronology of the enclosing elements”.

Several dozen people are presumed to have died and more than 100 injured following a fire in a ski resort in southern Switzerland, officials have said.

Police said several nationalities were likely involved in the New Year’s Day fire, which happened at 01:30 local time (00:30 GMT) in a bar called Le Constellation in the resort of Crans-Montana.

It is being treated as a fire and there is “no question” of an attack, the region’s chief prosecutor said.

A helpline has been set up for concerned families: +41 848 112 117

Here’s what we know so far.

At a news conference on Thursday morning police said “several dozen” people were presumed to have died in the fire, although it was too early to give a precise number.

The Italian foreign ministry – citing Swiss police – said it believed around 40 people had died.

Around 100 people have been injured, mostly with severe burns, Swiss officials said. Most have been taken to Valais hospital where the intensive care unit is now full, according to local authorities. A burns unit in Milan in neighbouring Italy has been made available.

Ten helicopters, 40 ambulances and 150 emergency workers were sent to the scene.

Work is ongoing to identify the victims and return bodies to families as quickly as possible, the region’s chief-prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said.

The Italian ambassador to Switzerland says it could take weeks to identify the dead. Earlier, Italy’s foreign minister said identification would be difficult due to the severe burns.

People from several countries are believed to be involved and French media has reported that at least two of the injured are French nationals.

French President Emmanuel Macron has offered “the full solidarity of France and our fraternal support” to Switzerland.

The UK embassy in Switzerland says it is monitoring the situation but it has not been approached for assistance.

Consular staff are on standby to support any British nationals affected, a Foreign Office statement said.

The cause is currently unknown but Ms Pilloud said it is currently being treated as a fire and “at no time is there a question of any attack”.

Asked about earlier reports of an explosion, regional security official Stéphane Ganzer said it “is not the detonation of an explosive device that causes the fire, it is the fire which, as it develops, causes an explosion and a general conflagration of the premises”.

Two French nationals who said they were in the bar at the time described seeing a waitress put a birthday candle on top of a champagne bottle.

“One of the candles was held too close to the ceiling, which caught fire. In a matter of seconds, the entire ceiling was ablaze. Everything was made of wood.” Emma and Albane told French media outlet BFMTV.

They described the evacuation as “very difficult” because the escape route was “narrow” and the stairs to get outside “even narrower”.

The regional police commander Frédéric Gisler said smoke was first seen emanating from a bar at around 01:30 local time, at which point emergency services were called.

The first police officers were quickly on the scene followed by a major deployment of rescue teams, Mr Gisler said.

Le Constellation is a large bar in the the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana which has been around for many years.

Although the resort itself is quite upmarket, Le Constellation was not particularly posh, the BBC’s Silvia Costeloe reported from the resort.

Upstairs, there is an area with TV screens where people go to watch football matches. Downstairs is a big bar where people were likely drinking and dancing.

It could hold up to 300 people and had a small terrace, although it is unknown how many people were there at the time of the fire.

The Christmas and New Year holidays are one of the busiest times of the year for Alpine ski resorts, and it is likely the bar was full of Swiss people and tourists celebrating the start of 2026.