Blessington Demesne 1

Nearest town:
Blessington (1km SW)
OS reference:
N984148
OS sheet:
56
Latitude:
53° 10' 28.57 N
Longitude:
6° 31' 41.56 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Blessington Demesne 1 (Round Barrow(s)) by ryaner

Development continues at the barrow, a new outdoor fitness gym built on the right of the shot. What’s next?

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jul 3, 2019
Image of Blessington Demesne 1 (Round Barrow(s)) by ryaner

Endlessly fascinated by this monument, its durability and its location. Early January, 2018.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jan 7, 2018
Image of Blessington Demesne 1 (Round Barrow(s)) by ryaner

Laugh? I nearly did. Blessington looks after its monuments, and kids.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Jun 23, 2015
Image of Blessington Demesne 1 (Round Barrow(s)) by ryaner

Looking west. Whose idea was this, I wonder?

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Nov 1, 2014
Image of Blessington Demesne 1 (Round Barrow(s)) by ryaner

Looking east from on top of the barrow. What a tight squeeze it will be.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Nov 1, 2014
Image of Blessington Demesne 1 (Round Barrow(s)) by ryaner

East side of the barrow, with digging works right up to the bank.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Nov 1, 2014
Image of Blessington Demesne 1 (Round Barrow(s)) by ryaner

I want to visit here in winter when there is less vegetation – but the sky won’t be as dramatic.

Image credit: ryaner
ryaner
ryaner Sep 28, 2014

Articles

Blessington Demesne 1

Ex-Garda ‘likely to have disturbed human remains’ at protected monument

moss
moss Jan 30, 2015

RETIRED GARDA is likely to have “removed and disturbed human remains” when he damaged a Bronze Age burial mound in County Wicklow, a court has heard.
Tony (also known as Thomas) Hand, aged 69, had denied interfering with the national monument at Carrig, Blessington by taking stones from the protected site on the night of 4 May, 2011.
However following a week-long trial at Bray Circuit Court, he was convicted yesterday of criminal damage to the prehistoric stone circle.

Continued;
thejournal.ie/garda-monument-remains-1911185-Jan2015/?fb_ref=Default

There are two sites of this name, Desmene 1 and 2, so it could be either....

Blessington Demesne 1

ryaner
ryaner Nov 1, 2014

I was heading south for Church mountain and glanced down to my right as I entered Blessington. Seeing the temporary fencing I quickly diverted and decided to check it out. And oh dear, what a mess! Already a neglected and overgrown monument, with a kids’ playground butted up to its west side, now the ignominy of a skate park to its east.

Sounding desperately like a killjoy to myself here, let it be said that the more playgrounds and skate parks for our kids, the better. But come on – allow the ancient burial site a bit of room to breathe. The beginnings of the ground work on the east side cut right into the edge of the external bank.

The whole project seems to have gone ahead with a lack of thought – what’s going to happen to the barrow now, given that the council has already treated it with such disdain? I get the feeling that they’d prefer if it just went away. Shame.

Blessington Demesne 1

ryaner
ryaner Jul 15, 2014

This site is actually visible from the N81, down on the right-hand side as you enter the town of Blessington from the north, opposite the Topaz garage and behind the Aldi.

When I stumbled upon it and saw its current situation beside a childrens’ playground I laughed out loud. I climbed the tallest climbing frame to take a few snaps, explaining to the mother and her child about the 3,000 year old burial mound.

Absolutely fascinating that this is still here – they even diverted the road around it. It’s quite overgrown at the moment, rose-bay willow herb colonising the southern end, but the fosse and bank are still very visible, with the centre of the mound quite flat, either robbed of some of its material or designed like that. (A lot of the barrows hereabouts have similar problems)

This one is a survivor, lying there as the hustle and bustle of a busy town goes on around it, bang in front of your face and invisible. Great.

Folklore

Blessington Demesne 1
Round Barrow(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 29, 2025

From the Schools’ Collection of folklore from the 1930s, which you can view at duchas.ie.

Belief in Fairies.
There is a fairy ring in the demesne of Blessington. It is a great big round circle of earth.

I don’t know if it’s the right place for the following story, but it seems like it could be:

Blessington.
Reports of the presence of fairies have caused a stir in Blessington. Two men working on night shift in a sandpit adjoining a “fairy moat” were disturbed by noises which were described as resembling the thunder of horses’ hoofs and it is claimed that several of the “little people” were seen. The men were genuinely affected by their experience.
Some accounts said that lights were seen and strange unearthly music was heard.

Sceptics hold that the collapse of a sand bank caused ground vibration and gave rise to unfounded fears. The men were working a “scraper,” which draws out sand in preparation for the following day’s loading, when they had their unusual experience. It is commonly believed that those who violate a “fairy ring” will meet with ill-fortune at the hands of the “good people.”

A minority of Blessington residents still hold to the old beliefs but most of those who spoke with our representative scoffed at the idea of fairies.

A story that the fairies were playing hurling with the “new” ball may, our representative learns on the very best authority, be discounted.

From the Leinster Leader, 8th October 1949. (I’m not sure what the ball refers to yet). Terrible pun alert for the next article:

The fairies have put Blessington in the headlines, but such notoriety has had a very mixed reception. One rational explanation is that the fairy (or multiples of them) was an oil barrel which thundered to the base of the pit in a fall of gravel and gave the two night workers wrong ideas. The barrel was found among the gravel next morning and it was not empty. It contained – no, not a fairy – oil.

In any case the fairy rath still stands undamaged, the wind-blasted bush which crowns it outlined against a daily darkening sky. Winter comes on and as the forces of modern mechanical progress draw nearer the sacred hill the fairies may be preparing to show their hand one more.

“Fairy rath” became fiery wrath when an irate pit owner was asked for his opinion on the matter. Our representative just escaped with his skin.

Leinster Leader, 15th October 1949.

Miscellaneous

Blessington Demesne 1
Round Barrow(s)
ryaner
ryaner Jul 14, 2014

From archaeology.ie:

Description: On a slight rise in gently undulating terrain with higher ground to the NW. Circular mound (diam. 11.1m; H. 1m) with an external annular ditch (Wth 1.5m; D. 0.45m).

Compiled by: Matt Kelleher

Date of upload: 04 December 2012

Date of last visit: 16 May 1989

Sites within 20km of Blessington Demesne 1