Murphy’s Fort
Very curious about this site. At the moment i’m doing a bit a read-up before my Easter trip to Ireland and I came across the name & I thought I made a mistake.
Mullaghmore Townland is on the North-Western slopes below the high Mourne Mountain & very sparsely populated. I have checked the current O.S Map throughly & it’s no longer referred to, which does’nt sound too good, but does’nt mean that it’s gone from the landscape. This definately deserves to be checked out.
The site was excavated by a Dr. J.M. Mogey between 1948 & 1949, and he referred to it as a low mound surrounded by a fosse and outer bank – in total 27.5m in diameter, & a similar structure 7.6m in diameter adjoining on the North-East side.
Additional curious note: A site called the Mullaghmore Cairn in the Dublin Penny Journal, IV (1935-6), which may be the same site, was opened just before 1835. The findings included an ornamented urn (aparently in the possession of the Marquis of Downshire), which contained several calcined bones and a Lachrymatory. This Lachrymatory is a small vessel which contained the ashes of a heart – obviously someone of great importance to the region. But sadly there’s no more information because the vessel turned to dust after being exposed to fresh air.
The question begs...What was the huge significance of this site in South-Down?
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Loughananka- Ballynahatten Townland. (Destroyed Site)
A single-chambered grave, which was removed forever, together with everything else in the the square mile area (fields, trees, farmhouses, etc) was cleared to make way for an areadrome between 1941 & 43 – dumped in the sea with other camp rubbish, when the American’s took over in 1942.
It consisted of three massive side-walls and 2 portal pillars, but during the period before the war it was already missing it’s Cap-Stone. It’s location was in the centre of a tiny field, surrounded by a low oval Cairn. Before it’s destruction it was overgrown it bushes & obviously not deemed important. Very sad!
In 1948, a Mr E. E. Evans reported in the Ulster Journal of Archoelogy that nothing remained. He only recovered one small fragment of Bronve-Age pottery & a cremated bone.
Note: Since those dark days, the areadrome was removed bit by bit, but the area surounding is potted with sand-pits old and new. You can see the fragments of the concrete everywhere in Greencastle & Cranfield, as it’s been used as wall building material in an area with few stones.
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