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Hi folks,

could either of you guys point me in the direction of some excavation notes or other relevant material on Baltinglass Hill and any excavations that were ever carried out there. I know there was an excavation sometime in the thirties but can't find any notes or descriptions for it. I was up there yesterday and came across some interesting stuff and would like to check. I've googled it but my cursory trawl has come up bupkis.

Thanks

Andy

I'll check the Wicklow Arch Inventory might have some references to the excavation report in it.

The excavation report was published, but is like rocking horse shit to find. I have some info in a couple of books. I have been told about most of the stuff from up there at some point, so if you want to email me with your query I can probably tell you.

The (very) basics are: there's 3 passage tombs up there. One has carvings on the a couple of its orthostats and a shallow basin. Another has a monster basin with a carving on it. There are several cists in the mound and three kerbs are visible, showing where each tomb was laid over the earlier ones.

Only the area inside the modern wall was excavated.

I reckon you could be right! Looks like a good find. It could be natural, but I'd have to take a good look at it. It could be a broken basin stone.

I'm impressed that you found Killakee, especially in the dark! It's a lovely spot up there.

Out of interest, which route did you take up Baltinglass Hill? There are a couple of cairns along the ridge to the north of the passage tombs, but the only time I've been up there it was blowing a gale and I bottled out of going to find them.

<I'm impressed that you found Killakee, especially in the dark! It's a lovely spot up there.>

It's 5 minutes from the gaff man (in the motor). If I can't find that one I might as well give up. ;-) It took a bit of time though. Your dry stone wall directions helped, once I found the right wall!

<Out of interest, which route did you take up Baltinglass Hill? There are a couple of cairns along the ridge to the north of the passage tombs, but the only time I've been up there it was blowing a gale and I bottled out of going to find them.>

The shit route. I've been putting off writing a blog about goin up there. We (my non-megalithic mate, sprout and me) ended up having to kick our way through gorse that was above head height. A effin nightmare. I felt a total prat for bringin Maurice up there, and the poor dog was exhausted with the heat. He drank more of our water than we did.

The actual route we took was up the side of the cemetery and to try to make it to the cross. I still haven't bought a compass and looking at the map that seemed best. Wrong!

I had scouted around the north side of the mountain in the car but couldn't find a route that didn't cross private land. I reckon we were close to 500 metres from the fort at one stage. Coming back down we landed north-west of the cemetery. There's signs saying Private Property etc. but nobody said anything to us. I believe I discovered THE way, if you're heading up from the cemetery road. There's some sort of electricity sub-station or summat about 500 metres up the road just back from the place called Sruhaun on the map, nor north west of the cemetery. It has big gates but a tiny fence and I spotted some walkers heading up the well-worn track at the back of it. It may look longer to the fort as the crow flies, but the slope is gentler.

Incidentally, I was up on Seahan last night and saw your new discovery. It's cute (can I say that about a tomb?). My favourite is the wedge tomb, so forlorn there like it's about to fall off the edge of the mountain. :-)