CianMcLiam

CianMcLiam

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Les Pierres Plats

As of June 2022 there is an official notice asking people not to go inside the monument I only saw it after leaving because the sign is several metres away and opposite the direction you arrive from the car park.

Image of Table des Marchants (Chambered Cairn) by CianMcLiam

Table des Marchants

Chambered Cairn

The large stone Cian is standing next to was most likely to have once been a standing stone, perhaps one of the now vanished alignment that ran past the cairn of this passage tomb. It was carved on both faces and shaped into the ‘buckler’ motif which was carved in outline on the stones of several sites in Brittany. Some feature what looks like hair or fur coming off the rounded top of the motif and these are carved into the edge of the stone here as well.

There are some other faint carvings on the bottom of the stone but some are now below ground level. There’s a few gadgets set up in front of the stone, the little sign at Cian’s feet says something about scientific monitoring but not sure what they are recording, don’t remember seeing them there last time.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2013
Image of Straths Bridge (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) by CianMcLiam

Straths Bridge

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

Recently rediscovered panels close to a disused railway with a view across to the many rock art sites at Magheranaul, on the Isle of Doagh. The carved rocks are located close to a small cliff-edge and one stone projecting from the edge has cup marks as well as an incised human head figure with weathered writing.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2013
Image of Ballinloughan (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) by CianMcLiam

Ballinloughan

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

One of the surviving panels from an outcrop featuring several unique motifs that was destroyed in the early 1980’s during land reclamation. Photographed at its present location in the Co. Louth Museum, Dundalk.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2013

Dranagh

This piece of rock art literally fell out of the gap in the wall behind it in 2008, having been placed with the carved face inwards when the wall was being built. Several such pieces have been discovered this way in the Carlow area over the past couple of decades.

The walls here are very substantial, piled four feet high or more and almost as thick. They cross the hillsides for miles around. Who knows how many more pieces are hidden within them.

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Miscellaneous

Ballinlug
Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

Concentric Circle and Cup-marked Stone in Westmeath.

A short time ago Mr. George Kelly, m.a., of County Roscommon, mentioned to

me that he noticed a curious stone at the right side of the Ballymahon

road, a short distance outside the village of Rathcondra, that he thought

it would be worth looking up. A few weeks afterwards Mr. N. J.

Downes and I visited the district, and found at the place indicated

(Ballinlug near Rathconrath) a very good specimen of concentric circle

and cup ornamentation, incised on a large block of millstone grit. The

stone is of rather regular shape and not native of the district. It is

34 inches across, 19 inches in height, and 10 inches thick, and resembles

the kind of slab used for covering pagan cists, which are very numerous

in this part of Westmeath. Ballinlug is quite near Uisneach, and just a

mile off in the townland of Glascorn is the great Rath Lochaid, which

according to the Four Masters was erected in the time of Nial Faidh,

son of Eremon, a.m. 3529 (F. M., vol. i, page 37, identified in index

as Glascorn, Westmeath). The outermost of the concentric circles, of

which there are three, is 11 inches in diameter, the other 7 and

5 inches. The inside of the smallest circle is cup-hollowed to a depth of

about 1 inch. Running through the lower part of the circles is a radial

groove, which, however, might tend to show that it was not a cist-cover.

On the left are two diagonal grooves. There are Hive cup-markings at

the top right-hand corner, and two others near the top, over the circles.

So far as I know this is the first concentric circle ornament discovered in Westmeath.

Some years ago this stone was taken from the adjoining field and

used in the erection of the wall, the mason placing it with the carved

side inwards. In more recent times, the wall requiring ^to be rebuilt,

the carved side was turned outwards to face the road.

While we were engaged in taking a rubbing from the stone and

photographing it, about half a dozen persons came to look on. We told

them something about its history, and they at once became interested

and anxious to help us. This and similar experiences I have had show

me clearly that all that is wanted to secure the support of the people in

the preservation of our historic monuments is to tell them what the

monuments are and what they represent. In about a week after our

first visit we returned to the place, but the stone was gone. We were

certainly amazed. However, in a few minutes an old woman came on

the scene, and told us that Mr. Donohoe, who owns a little farm at the other side of the wall, hearing that the stone was valuable, had removed

it to the yard of his nice cottage, where it now serves as a seat along

side the door. There no doubt it is safer than it was in the wall. We

received a

hearty welcome from Mr. Donohoe. He and his brother that

day showed us many kindnesses by bringing us around to see other

antiquities, and, when leaving them, we felt that we had done a good day’s

work in the cause of local antiquarian research.

James Tuite, Local Hon. Secretary for South Westmeath.

The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Sixth Series, Vol. 3, No. 2(Jun. 30, 1913), pp. 180-182Published by: Royal Society of Antiquaries of IrelandStable URL: jstor.org/stable/25517390

Ballinlug

This carved stone was found buried in a field nearby many years ago and was temporarily set into a wall before being moved to the front of a farmers cottage for safe keeping.

The cottage now lies in a forgotten pile of stone in the corner of a field and I was not very hopeful of locating the rock art. However, after hacking through the undergrowth for a while this stone stood out as the largest on top of the pile and moving a decaying tree trunk revealed the carvings underneath, still in an excellent state of preservation.

It is the only example of rock art so far discovered in Co. Westmeath.

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Image of Ballinlug (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) by CianMcLiam

Ballinlug

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

The pile of moss covered stones in the background is the remains of the old cottage at this site outside which this stone was propped up shortly after it was found.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2012
Image of Derrynablaha 028 (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) by CianMcLiam

Derrynablaha 028

Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

This must be the smallest panel at Derrynablaha! It’s got one nice cup and ring and two very weathered cupmarks, one of which has an attempt at a ring just barely visible.

This is looking east over the valley towards Knocklomena, the carving sits right inside a narrow gateway that leads into some ruined houses/huts. It must have been walked on for decades on top of several thousand years of weathering!

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2011

Knockroe

One part of this stone was found several years ago when part of a field wall was removed, since then the other three parts have turned up along the wall and have recently been reconstructed in the gap formed by a gateway.

There is very good access, up a farm lane to the west of the site, then follow a barely noticeable carved cup and ring sign placed in a gateway (unfortunately placed in the wrong side if you are driving up the lane, but ok if you have come down the hill as part of the walking trail), straight across the field to the gateway in the far wall opposite.

There is a stake placed right in front of it, but it is only sitting in a base and can easily be taken out for photos and then replaced.

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Image of Banagher (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

Banagher

Passage Grave

Megalithic art occurs on one remaining stone at this destroyed passage tomb but some heavily incised lines on another stone (which I failed to locate) could possibly date to the construction of the tomb also.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2010
Image of Cairn I (Passage Grave) by CianMcLiam

Cairn I

Passage Grave

Part of the remaining kerb of Cairn I looking east-ish with Cairn M on Slíabh Rua in front and Cairn T prominent on Slíabh na Callaighe further on, islands in the misty dawn.

Image credit: Ken Williams/ShadowsandStone.com 2010