Excavations found in archaeological expeditions reveal settlers on the island of Ireland around 8000 BC. The first inhabitants created a high Neolithic culture, as indicated in tombs found in large monuments.

By the end of the Neolithic Era, different variants of monuments were erected on the island, such as circular embanked enclosures and pit circles made of timber and stone. The Bronze Age in Ireland began when copper was used to produce artifacts, around 2000/2500 BC. Evidence reveals that a Chalocolithic culture existed in Ireland as well, which used lavish gold, bronze tools, weapons and ornamentation of many kinds. Instead of building communal megalithic tombs, settlers later constructed simple coffin-like structures, as well as cemeteries. And by the middle of the Bronze Age, large burial urns were utilised. The Iron Age began in Ireland around 600 BC, when an upper class was established, which included intelligentsia and possibly druids.