Moylisha

Also known as:
Labbanasighe
Nearest town:
Tullow (10km WNW)
OS reference:
S931675
OS sheet:
62
Latitude:
52° 45' 2.23 N
Longitude:
6° 37' 15.78 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Moylisha (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

The gorse tends to spoil the view of this beautiful tomb a bit.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Aug 9, 2006
Image of Moylisha (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

Looking north-east across the court at Aghowle Upper (right) and, I guess, Aghowle lower.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Aug 9, 2006
Image of Moylisha (Portal Tomb) by ryaner

Moylisha wedge tomb, looking north-west from half way up a pine tree.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Aug 9, 2006

Articles

Moylisha

ryaner
ryaner Aug 9, 2006

There’s a faint track marked on sheet 62 at the north end of Moylisha hill. To get to it you need to enter the white gate at the edge of the farm buildings and walk up to the fifth gate on your left. The farmer was more than happy to allow me up the track and offered directions.
Over the aforesaid 5th gate, walk through 2 fields in a south-east and upward direction and you will spot the site in the corner of the 2nd field by the pine plantation.
This is one of the best sites I’ve visited in Wicklow. It’s a pity that it’s not better looked after. The OPW sign was in bits on the ground. The tomb itself is now overgrown with bracken and gorse. Those negatives aside, the stones here are very well preserved and the layout very easy to see. It’s a pity that the roofstones are cast aside and left on the ground. A small bit of restoration here would not go amiss.

Folklore

Moylisha
Portal Tomb
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Oct 17, 2018

The name of the monument is variously given as Lob-in-a-sigh, Leaba an Sidh; on the Ordnance Survey map it is recorded as Labbanasigha. O’Donovan says the monument was called “Leaba na Saighe (Lectus canis venatica) where it is supposed a famous huntsman of old interred a favourite greyhound bitch.” Perhaps it is not unreasonable to suggest in the light of the discovery of the javelin mould that the name may have some connection with the Irish word saighead (spearhead).

When the cairn was excavated, there were found two halves of a sandstone mould for a loop-socketed spear head, in the base of the cairn at the east end of the main chamber.

In ‘The Moylisha Megalith, Co. Wicklow’ by Gearóid Ó h-Iceadha, p119-128 in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Vol. 76, No. 3 (Oct., 1946).

There are many sites in Wales with ‘Filiast’ in their name: also meaning ‘Greyhound Bitch’. I think Leaba an Sidh would mean the bed of the fairies?

Topics

Gorse Bushes @ Moylisha 5
FourWinds
FourWinds
Aug 2006
Calling 4w's 4
CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam
Nov 2005

Sites within 20km of Moylisha

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