
Towards the front is Dolls Brook, middle of the shot is the cup-marked stone, and then behind are the two raths, with Church mountain in the distance.
Towards the front is Dolls Brook, middle of the shot is the cup-marked stone, and then behind are the two raths, with Church mountain in the distance.
Southern of the 2 raths, desperately overgrown, with its national monument fógra.
Northern of the 2 raths, east towards Corriebracks.
About 400 metres North of the town of Donard is Hell Kettle Bridge, fording Brown’s Beck Brook. Another 100 metres north of that is Doll’s Brook, a stream that rises on the southern spine of Church mountain. Slightly north of this, and almost beside the road, is this cup-marked stone. It lies at the southern edge of 2 almost conjoined raths. The southern rath is in better condition but is very overgrown. The defensive ditches of this rath are very visible on its northern side – defences on the southern side where the stone is are the steepness of of the hillock that the rath is built upon.
A very charming place on mid-summer’s day, the late evening sunshine brought out the 20 or so cup-marks perfectly. The grass hadn’t been cut in the meadow and the bubbling of Doll’s brook below added to the atmosphere. The cairn on top of Church mountain is visible from the bridge over the brook.
In Kilbaylet Upper on the boundary of the Blackmoor townland, are three raths which are regarded with some superstition in the neighbourhood. (It is said that an old woman resident near the raths wandered out one night and lost her way. When found she stated that she had been to the raths and had seen people dance from one rath to the other. She gave the names of a number, all of whom were deceased at the time.)
From ‘The Antiquities of the Dunlavin-Donard District (Counties of Wicklow and Kildare)’ by Patrick T. Walshe, in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 7th series, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Dec. 31, 1931).