Latest Fieldnotes

After scouring the fields for the rock art locations on archaeology.ie for a couple of hours I slowly accepted that these panels have either become turf covered, or, more alarmingly, been blown up with dynamite like many of the outcrops on the hillside obviously have been over the past few years.

The blown up outcrops in the first field from the road have not been cleared and the remaining stone still litters the hill, this is probably not a good sign since it seems to suggest clearance or building stone was not the reason for using dynamite.

I only found these carvings after a lot of staring at outcrop. There’s definite parallel grooves enclosed by lines but these are hugely weathered now and difficult to bring out in full. I also spotted a single cup surrounded by an almond or ‘eye’ shaped ring on the same outcrop.

Forecast was bright early on so decided to get some better pics of of two rocks discovered about 18 months ago . At the time the cups were not at all clear , particularly the markings on the horzontal face of one of the rocks , not a common feature . Managed to find another unrecorded one that I had missed previously ,before the sleet started . There are other recorded rocks in the area about 500 metres to the south .

This was the fourth time I went looking for this fabled panel and I ended up returning four times, getting washed out each time by wild winds which sent the driving rain in every direction.

The panel has been moved recently from it’s last resting place, under some barbed wire beside a gate, to an altogether more picturesque spot under some trees alongside field clearance.

This is wonderful stuff, a really superbly executed set of ten (count them!) rings around a central cup with not one but two radial lines. These lines extend outside the rings and meander off the side of the surface.

The site is very easy to access and locate now, if you enter Malin from the south, cross the estuary and take the next right. Proceed past the crossroads and look out for two new yellow painted houses with white trimming on the right, park here. Cross the road and hop over the rickety gate, the panel is on the far side of the trees extending to your right from the field wall.

Pillsbury hills castle is a Norman non stone walled castle/fort/settlement, best approached from the south-east. Rght next to the earthworks is this tall leaning stone it does have a hole through it so could have been used in modern times, but the stone isn’t part of a wall nor does it look like it ever did. Not on the map or TMP. Anyone know owt about it?

To the east of Errwood and Fernilee reservoirs a small road leads over to Bollington and Rainow, when the forest ends park in the carpark on the left and go through the gate on to the footpath. The stone can be seen from here, a short walk up the hill. The stone leans a lot to the west (I think) and is maybe three and a half feet tall.

At the end of a long thin lane coming off the A53
is Brand end house, plenty of parking and a short walk to the stones. The tall squarish stone with a tapered top is about 7-8ft tall and seems to have packing stones, (unless its sighted on an old cairn or just dumped there) about thirty feet away is the smaller stone. Great views over to Hollins hill not so great is the view of Brand end house with its cronky old vans.
The two stones are just intervisible because the wall stops with only a foot to spare.
Because the site wasn’t on here before I’m a little suspect (surely Stubob would’ve come here) the square profile of the stone is also suspicous but the smaller one is very reminiscent of other Peak district stones like the Murder stone, also it looks down upon Hollins hill with it’s becairned summit .

The “NEW” carvings are found at between 100-200m from the main carvings. I took the longer route to find the carvings by looking for the fallen trees which were in an area behind the main carvings. The easier directions are as follows, park as you would at the main car park, follow the path until you come to the red tape which is where the cycle path turns.Follow the left trail up the hillside, follow the cycle track (which for obvious reasons is closed at the present time), until you see a square of yellow tape only 1m from the cycle track, this is where the carvings are. It is surprising to see the roots of the tree which covered this panel, who knows what else there is to find in the area.
I would imagine that the local archaeologist , Andy Bunton will be doing a fuller examination of the panel in due course.

A little cemetery not far from Knocklong. Not much to say about them really. there are 8 dots on the map I found 5 of them.

Limerick seems to be the county for unmarked standing stones. This one on a hill behind a old farm-house about 0.25km from the large barrow also in Ballinscaula.
Its about 0.75m high and although the day was cloudy you could make out Cnoc Aine to the north.

This is another huge barrow in Limerick similar to the one at Knockanny.
In fact the three rings or banks around it seem to be of a wider diameter to the ones in Rathanny but maybe the mound is slightly smaller. The barrow at Rathanny is only about 5km away from this one. The amount of work to construct these two mounds would have been huge. Reading the North Munster Project I believe there may be a few more of these in the area which along with Lough Gur only a few more kms to the north really points to a good size population here.
The outer ring diameter is huge could be 30m across and the height of the barrow / mound is about 5m high.
Similar to Knockanny this again is located in wetland area and when I visited the trenches between the rings were water-logged up to 400mm. Funnily enough there wasnt much variation in the depth and I didnt find myself walking into any holes and causing the water to go over my wellies. Obviously though be careful walking thru the water. You never know what kind of critters could be in stagnant water.
There is a track leading all the way to the barrow, its a good km from the road and leads past an old disused farmhouse.
There is also an unmarked standing stone on a hill behind the farmhouse as you walk in.

Visited the site after going to the duddo stone and the battle stone. It was only after leaving the site travelling home and arriving in Millfield I realised how easy it is to get there.
Never got down to the waterfall as the fiancee wanted to go home. All this around her and she wants her tea.
Anyway, what a place. The ditches are big and a puzzle. The rock art on the stone is in very condition and plenty of it.
I have got photos to put on, but I have not got photoshop after wiping my drive before christmas and I cannot find the disk.
At the back of the monument, is that a water channel or where rain water has worn away at the stone.
Also is that a grave at the back?

Visited the stones on Sunday and I am convinced that this is a burial site. Nice views and a nice day.

This is an unmarked standing stone to the west of the Barrow Cemetery. Its about 0.75m high and reminded me of “The surgeons photo” of Nessie! Its wafer thin so I couldnt see it being of any use as a scratching post for cows.
Its located just to the rear of a bungalow house.

For anyone that has visited Duntryleague and looked at the map and thought the barrow cemetery to the north must be amazing, well this is what remains of the cemetery. I found roughly about 7 barrows and the positions of approximately 5 others.
However saying that this is a reasonably interesting place. A lot of work has gone into draining the lands here and you wonder why anyone would have located a cemetery pre the drainage?
There is a very long avenue / bank to the east which to me doesnt serve any purpose in terms of drainage etc and I would suggest that maybe this bank signifies the limit of the cemetery.
Also to the north of the main field of the cemetery the ground undulates a lot and looks to me like it could be part of the cemetery.

A small standing stone about 500mm high just on the cork / limerick border. It seems to be looking towards the peak on Carrigeenamronety.

This is a small standing stone outside Mitchelstown here the Labbamolaga standing stones.

This is another tomb that has disappeared in dense pine forest plantation. I have seen it marked on a few information boards around the area so there is a possiblity that it is there.
However there doesnt appear to have been any clearing left for it and there is a lot of stone lying around within the forest so makes it very difficult to pin down.

I went back to this a second time with a 10 digit ordnance survey reference.
Still couldnt find it and had a good root around some pretty scary looking forest so dont think it remains.

I dont know how well the cupmarks come out of this stone. Unfortunately capturing light etc isnt my area.
According to the North Tipp Inventory these are possible cupmarks. Ill give the reference
“According to an OPW field report (30-12-1997) there are cupmarks on the external faces of some of the kerbstones in the SE quadrant; these are now covered with lichen. A possible cupmark was noted on the internal face of a stone in the NNW quadrant and onthe external face of a stone at ESE”
This sounds to me like they couldnt find the cupmarks in the SE quadrant due to lichen but these are the ones I pictured. There are least 20-25 cupmarks on the stone and I would love to get a really good pic of it

This site is Missing in Action underneath dense pine plantation. May be possible to find it once they are harvested.

This fallen standing stone is about 2m long and lies at the west end of the barrow.
What is really interesting about it are the incisions made in the stone which the North Tipp Inventory believe to be ‘faked’ ogham script that was put their to confuse antiquarians!
The stone was standing in recent memory.

This barrow doesnt appear on the OS map but can be found in the North Tipp inventory where there is a picture of it. This and the little bit of folklore that is attached to it were the main reasons why I wanted to see it. It is located about 2 miles from the village of Upperchurch.
According to local tradition this site was the burial site of the “Great Dane” and part of the “Jewel of the Dane” estate whatever that means!

The tipp inventory gives it dims as (diam 0.26m: D 0.11m) which sounds about right. The stone itself is in the North Eastern quadrant of the ring-fort.
Its an unusual stone in that there is no evidence that I know of any early religious sites within the vicinity. The stone itself is tricky to find. Its off a back-road near Borrisoleigh, I stopped at a wall with a no dumping sign that is adjacent to a ring-fort up on the summit of a hill (on opposite side of road to the wall). (If you find this spot you will know it!)
Then the stone is about 3 fields in directly to the rear of a farm stead but just far enough away that you wont look too suspicious walking around.

This cairn is only a few miles from Cairn and access to it is pretty good. Its about 2 fields in from the road.
When I first saw it from about a field back I couldnt believe its size. I actually thought it was a ring-fort and I was imagining this big pile of stones. The main reason I was surprised at its size was due to it being in the middle of farm-land I presumed it would have been cleared or used for road-building by now.
It must be about 4m high and the diameter must be about 20-25m. As above it is in great condition and I would say that nothing has been removed from it. To the east there is a slight depression on top of the cairn which may point to where a chamber has fallen in.
Another interesting feature is the ‘alignment’ with Galtymore / Galtybeg which seem to form a pair of breasts at this point. Either that or a psychotherpist would have a field-day with me!

Three new panels uncovered last week .

Four of seven new marked rocks discovered on Saturday ,they are spread over a stretch of 2 miles on the eastern side of Glen Goulandie which has no previous recorded marked rocks . Access is easiest from the Coshieville -Tummel Bridge road , if you can get parked then head up hill , the rocks are on the 350 m contour .If anyone needs better grid refs etc , do ask .