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This hill-fort isnt that prominent and cant be seen from the road below. I visited last Autumn but have had trouble locating the pictures from that visit. The hill is 315m high and the centre of the hill-fort is scrubby.
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This cairn is on top of Knockanora, a prominent hill at 420m in North Tipperary not far from Borrisoleigh. I started walking up from S004709 which is the rear of a stone farm-house. You can follow a track approximately 3/4 of the way and then I followed a sheep track through the heather/brush.
The cairn itself isnt massive (approx 2m high) and a shelter has been built on top of it. There is also a trig point constructed on top of it too.
It is not listed in the Arch Inventory for North Tipp. Any information about its antiquity would be appreciated.
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This barrow is just inside county Tipperary in the area of Johnstown.
It is in an dry island area in a bog as the name "Togher" gives away. A Togher is a timber roadway through a bog.
The barrow has an internal ditch which had me thinking that it may be a henge and it has an causewayed entrance to the SE. Part of the ditch is water-logged. The inventory gives the barrow a diameter of 30m. To get to it is possible via a bog-road that gets you to with 100m of the barrow. The OS map shows that there are no houses in the vicinity of this track but there is now one right at the roadside.
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Funnily enough being from the area it was only last winter when there were no leaves on the trees that I spotted what is listed as a motte. I checked the inventory thinking to myself that it had a very mound like look to it.
What really took my interest is the fact that just about 200m to the west there has been an excavation on an enclosure. This enclosure according to the inventory "suggested that Tullahedy represents an extensive ritual area from the Neolithic period on a scale previously unknown in the Irish archaeological record".
When they excavated the enclosure they found "Polished stone axes, chert arrowheads, struck chert, stone beads and a pendant were recovered from the fill of this ditch".
Now Im not saying that this motte is from the Neolithic but I am suggesting that perhaps further investigation should be focused on it especially knowing the Normans reuse of ancient mounds for their mottes and also the fact that is metres from "an extensive ritual area". The inventory suggests that "A natural hill which has been scarped to form a steep-sided flat-topped mound (top diam. 19.2m N-S; H11m)".
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This is listed in the Inventory as a possible megalithic tomb. It is within 400m of the main mound at Ashleypark. The inventory gives this as its reasoning that it may not be genunine "The awkward siting of this feature, its location in a disused farmyard complex, and its lack of clear diagnostic features raise uncertainty as to its nature and antiquity".
Im curious to what other people might think of it, my own thoughts after viewing it is that it may be genuine.
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Ring fort may have held Bronze Age sports arena
A MYSTERIOUS ring fort in Co Tipperary holds "massive potential for discoveries" according to archaeologists who have carried out the first survey of the site.
Their initial findings suggest that the site may have been used for Bronze Age sporting contests in an arena that is the ancient equivalent of Semple Stadium.
Archaeologists have long been curious about the origins of the Rathnadrinna Fort located about 3km south of the Rock of Cashel – one of Ireland's most important heritage locations and seat of the High Kings of Munster.
The unusually large and distinctive landmark is still subject to many of the traditional taboos surrounding fairy forts. Archaeologists say that many people in rural areas still believe it is unwise to enter a fairy fort or to cut down perimeter trees or vegetation.
Ian Doyle, head of conservation services and archaeology with the Heritage Council, said it was traditionally believed that the fort was a "defended farmstead" of a type commonly built in Ireland about 1,200 years ago.
But while the "average run-of-the-mill fairy fort" is ringed by one defensive perimeter ditch, "Rathnadrinna Fort is quite rare because it has three rings". Despite the historical significance of the landscape, the fort has never been excavated.
Mr Doyle said "when you think of Tara, the countryside surrounding the Rock of Cashel must hold massive potential for discoveries". This led the council to fund a survey of the site which was carried out by a team of archaeologists led by Cashel-based Richard O'Brien and the Co Mayo company Earthsound Archaeological Geophysics.
Using highly sensitive equipment, the soil was subjected to "high-resolution magnetic imaging" – similar to an MRI scan. It is the first time that any of the fairy forts in the countryside surrounding the Rock of Cashel has been surveyed in this manner.
Speaking to The Irish Times about the results, Mr O'Brien said that "none of the traditional evidence associated with ring forts – such as houses, hearths or rubbish pits – was found". Instead, the team discovered that the site may have been first used 3,000 years ago during the late Bronze Age.
He said one of the most exciting discoveries was evidence of a Stonehenge-style circle of wooden posts suggestive of "a ceremonial or ritual role for the fort".
Mr O'Brien said the use of the site would have changed down through the centuries and the survey results indicate that it had "a royal function". But the most intriguing possibility, he said, was that the "vast interior area which is much larger than most ring forts is like a sports arena".
Rathnadrinna translates as the "Fort of the Contest", he added.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0225/1224265140601.html
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I found reference to this headstone while parked in the tiny village of Glenroe (which actually does exist). Another time while passing through this area I spotted the sign for the graveyard itself and took a spin to see it. Its not far from the crossroads that is marked with a sign Darragh.
The art itself consists of a cross, a backwards P and a long snaky symbol.
The info board has this to say about it "A large stone, resembling a headstone, which may also be seen in the graveyard, appears to have 'Rock Art' (abstract images carved on stone), which may also date from the Megalithic or Neolithic periods"
I think this is unlikely however and it may more likely be Christian art.
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I tried to find this tomb once before but failed. The OS map shows it to be in the middle of some forestry. This forestry turns out to be apple trees and the wedge tomb is actually in open grass to the south of the apple trees.
It is very close to the rear of a farmhouse so I would recommend perhaps coming in by the lane and asking for permission. I happened to have came in from the rear thinking that the trees would cover my approach.
The capstone on this tomb is pretty huge as the pictures show. The isnt much of a chamber, the sidestones have fallen in and what would have been a chamber now seems to be full of smaller stones. There is a pool about 100m to the east and there is one stone in it that looks like it may have once been part of the tomb.
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This is a huge stone, it must be 4m high. It is located past Castlegregory in a tiny hamlet called Candiha. An area that is beautiful on a calm day but on the day I was there it was windy and desolate.
The stone is only one small field from the road and so access it relatively easy.
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