Brewell’s Hill

Stone Circle
N834014

Also known as:

Brewel Hill, Piper's Stones and The Piper's Stones

Nearest town:

Ballymore Eustace (13km NE)

OS reference:

N834014

OS sheet:

Latitude:

53° 3' 24.39 N

Longitude:

6° 45' 21.55 W

Added to TMA by

bawn79

Sites (2)
Images (9)
Fieldnotes (1)
Folklore (3)

Sites within Brewell’s Hill

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description link

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description link

Images

Image of Brewell’s Hill (Stone Circle) by bawn79

Shot of the circle from within the trees, you cant see the fourth stone that is outside the trees because of the light

Image credit: Bawn79

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

The circle seems to be on this built-up platform.

Image credit: Bawn79

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

It seems that at least two of the stones are made of a quartz type rock which you can see here where it isnt completely covered in lichen.

Image credit: Bawn79

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

Close-up of the shamrock

Image credit: Bawn79

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

If you look closely on the top right hand side of the stone you can see a modern shamrock

Image credit: Bawn79

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

The other faces of the hoof stone

Image credit: Bawn79

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

The remaining two cupmarks

Image credit: Bawn79

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

This is the stone you see to the right in the last photo. It has six cupmarks that legend calls the hoof marks of cuchulains hound/horse.

Image credit: Bawn79

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

This is a shot into the circle thru the pine trees. The stone in the foreground seems to be the smallest of the four. You just make out the fourth stone in the left middle.

Image credit: Bawn79

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

Articles

Brewell’s Hill

Stone Circle

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

I read about this circle in Archaeology Irelands pull-out on the Curragh and said I had to see it. Especially since its not listed on the OS map as a circle. Brewell’s Hill is only about 222m high but it has commanding views into at least 5 counties. To get up to it I parked at the road just before the field with the barrows in it. Its only half a km from the road in a small pine plantation that you can clearly see from the road.
The circle itself consists of four stones, three of them large and two of them probably made from quartz. The most interesting stone to me was the one with the cupmarks on it. They are slender and beautiful and kind of look like scales on the back of the stone.
I met the farmer who was up checking his sheep and he told me a little folklore about the stones (I was actually hiding in the ditch waiting for him to leave but he spotted me, so ill have to improve on my camoflague skills).

Brewell’s Hill

Stone Circle

Rhiannon Aug 11, 2020

There is another stone circle on “Brewel Hill” known as “The Piper’s Stones.
The tradition about these stones is A lot of maidens were tempted to dance on an holy day, while a piper played for them. Like a flash of lightening they were all changed into stones.

Collected as part of the Schools Collection in the 1930s, and now online at Duchas.ie.

Brewell’s Hill

Stone Circle

Rhiannon Feb 27, 2010

On the summit of Brewel Hill, 2 1/2 miles S.W. of Dunlavin, encircled by a wide double entrenchment now much levelled, is a group of four large boulders of which two are granite, another is of white quartz while the fourth is of red “pudding stone.” Locally they are known as the “Piper’s Stones,” the quartz one being called the “Piper’s Chair,” from the resemblance its form bears to that of a chair.
[...] According to legend, three giants – pipers by profession – had a dispute as to which of them could throw a stone the farthest. They decided to put their strength to the test and chose Knuckadow, a tall hill about a mile and a half south of Brewel, as the position from which the “cast” was to be thrown. The stones landed on the top of Brewel hill where they remain to this day. The fourth, and smallest boulder, was thrown by a young ambitious piper who was spectator of the contest and desired to emulate his older brethren.
Legend, also relates that one of these giants had a famous greyhound which, two days after the contest, leaped from Knuckadow to Brewel, and, landing on the stones, left the imprint of its toe nails on each boulder.

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).

Brewell’s Hill

Stone Circle

bawn79 Apr 7, 2006

I met a lovely sheep-farmer up here called Jim (I was hiding in the bushes, I think he must have thought I was a sheep-worrier). Nice guy he said that they were known locally as the Pipers Stones. The cup-marks he said were the feet of cuchalainns hound that jumped from here to the Bog of Allen to the north. A serious jump by anyones standards. He mentioned hooves so maybe it was cuchalainns steed rather than hound, I think that has a better ring to it.