Ashley Park

Nearest town:
Puckaun (3km WSW)
OS reference:
R874870
OS sheet:
59
Latitude:
52° 56' 1.41 N
Longitude:
8° 11' 14.66 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Ashley Park (Burial Chamber) by bawn79

Loch Eorna (Barley?) about 500m to the south of Ashleypark has a crannóg in it. I wonder did this lake have any bearing on the location of the passage grave.

Image credit: Bawn79
bawn79
bawn79 Jan 9, 2006
Image of Ashley Park (Burial Chamber) by bawn79

Possibly the internal wall as described in the Tipp Inventory

Image credit: Bawn79
bawn79
bawn79 Nov 9, 2005
Image of Ashley Park (Burial Chamber) by bawn79

This is the huge internal floorstone the tipp inventory refers to the tomb as being 5m long and this covers most of it.

Image credit: Bawn79
bawn79
bawn79 Nov 7, 2005
Image of Ashley Park (Burial Chamber) by bawn79

View of the mound with the burial chamber visable

Image credit: Bawn79
bawn79
bawn79 Nov 7, 2005
Image of Ashley Park (Burial Chamber) by bawn79

Some the massive stones that are the remains of a ‘capping’ that was on the mound

Image credit: Bawn79
bawn79
bawn79 Nov 7, 2005

Articles

Ashley Park

bawn79
bawn79 Nov 7, 2005

Wow what a site, I only live a couple of miles from here and although I had heard of it, all I had seen before this was a crappy picture that didnt really get you very excited.
This is just off the nenagh – ardcroney road. Turn left after Ashley Park B&B then its the next left which is a cul de sac/lane thats quite difficult to spot. When u get right to the mound it helpfully has a sign pointing to it saying Neolithic mound!
The mound itself is very impressive and sits beside a little hill to one side. It has extensive views of all the major hills in the area.
However the little hill beside the mound obstructs its view to the ‘Devils Bit’ mountain which seems kinda strange as no doubt an unusual natural feature such as this would have had some significance within the local landscape.
There is a lake in Ashley Park estate only approx 500m away.

Ashley Park

bawn79
bawn79 Nov 7, 2005

Linkardstown -type burial
Taken from the Archaeological Inventory of North Tipp

Situated on the NW shoulder of an E-W ridge in farmland. A megalithic structure is exposed in a round mound which in turn is encircled by two low wide banks with internal ditches giving an overall diameter of 90m. The structure was uncovered during bulldozing operations in 1980 after which the site was excavated (Manning, 1985a). The mound, 26m in diameter, consists of a cairn core, 18 to 20m in diameter, overlain by a covering of clay, The megalithic structure stands eccentrically within the cairn. It is trapezoidal in plan, some 5m long and narrows from 2.3m wide at the SE or inner end to 1.3m at the open NW end. It was built around a limestone erratic which has a sloping upper surface and serves as a floorstone. Two stones form the inner end of the structure. There is a stone at right angles to the SW side of the structure 1.2m from the inner end. This, in combination with a rough wall divides it in two. That part of it forward of the dividing wall was filled with cairn stones among which animal bones and the bones of a child less than a year old were found. The inner end of the structure, roofed by a skeletal remains of an adult male and a child were found here along with a variety of animal bones, a bone point, some chert flakes and Neolithic pottery, including sherds bearing channelled decoration. Radiocarbon dating indicates a calendar date of c. 3350 BC for the burial in the chamber (Brindley and Lanting 1989-90, 2)

Folklore

Ashley Park
Burial Chamber
bawn79
bawn79 Aug 23, 2006

A friends dad told me a story about the lake near Ashley Park. One day people where cutting barley in the field where the lake is and they struck a spring. They thought great some fresh water. However the spring didnt stop flowing and this is how the lake was formed. Im not sure if this is folklore or whether it is meant to be true but there are crannogs in the lake so it is likely the lake is their for at least 1000 years. Intriguingly the name of the lake is Lough Eorna or the lake of barley.

Folklore

Ashley Park
Burial Chamber
bawn79
bawn79 Nov 7, 2005

While looking for the whitstone cairn I stopped to talk to a local farmer. As luck would have it we had a friend in common and he also knew a little about the local folklore attached to this site.
He told me that the mound was originally capped “like a pyramid” by the stones that are lying around the field and that a local man bull-dozed the lot for fill. It was also much bigger than its present size.
However it was when he got to the capstone of the burial chamber that he stopped. When it was open 3 skeletons were found, one 7ft tall, the next 6ft 6inchs and the third 6ft. He also reckons that the 7ft tall skeleton was on the Late Late Show! As you can see in my field notes the official report mentions 2 skeletons.
Also he pointed out that the name for the area Ardcroney means Ard being Big, Croine. And locally that is believed who was found in the mound Ard Croine.

Topics

Second chamber? 6
TheStandingStone
TheStandingStone
Dec 2009
Nice ring work around this burial mound! 13
FourWinds
FourWinds
Nov 2005

Sites within 20km of Ashley Park

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.