CianMcLiam

As usual the sunlight was a gorgeous golden shade against a dark stormy sky, picking out and magnifying the green shades in the trees. Also as usual, this was while I was on the road between Armagh town and Cookstown. By the time I got to Creggandevesky the haze on the horizon was filtering out the strong sunlight and the lovely stormy sky was dissapating.

This site is signed all the way off the main Cookstown-Omagh road but the very last sign is minisule and green, spotted at the last second while driving down the road. I only noticed on the way back that the site is clearly visible from the road until you park. There is a decent stile there which gives you the false impression that access is easy. I made my way down to the lakeside and decided that the locked gates meant the south shore was not an official right of way, what a fatal error!

I made my way around the north shore which was boggy but passable until you pass the knoll that blocks the tomb from view. Once I got this far around I realised the track ended in a barbed wire fence, on closer inspection it was a DOUBLE barbed wire fence. With the light fading fast there was nothing else to be done so I scaled the fence and soon found myself in boggier and boggier marsh. This meant circumnavigating part of the lake that was overgrown and crossing another fence with soggier and soggier toes. When I was about 100m away from the tomb I discovered the ground dissapeared down into a deep banked stream, a prod with a tripod leg ruled out a crossing attempt.

As luck would have it though I followed it back towards the lake, resigned to not making it to the site when I noticed the stream was covered over nearer to the lake so the only obstacle left was another barbed wire fence and foot deep-holes of cow dung.

Though the fence is far too close this site is really wonderful, though the sketchy access has not deterred the vandals, names were carved in foot high letters on both sides of the tomb entrance and the information board had been smashed and destroyed. Nonetheless the lakeside location and beautiful views soon distract you, the tombs remarkable state of preservation and neat construction easily make this the best court tomb I’ve yet to visit, even better than Creevykeel (possibly because that looks like its located in someones back garden). The tombs construction is better described elsewhere.

I wished I had brought a ladder to get some good overhead views, the sun did briefly make an appearance but even climbing the stile didn’t offer a good overall view of the structure.

On the way back I took the south path around the lake, though be advised that the cows and bullocks here take no s**t, the usual shouts of ‘gerrrrout!’, ‘whisssshhhhhhht!’ and ‘ye feckin JERK!’ had absolutely no effect on the fecker standing directly in my path with his nicely rounded horns. More trekking through deep holes of dung with one eye over my shoulder on the way back to the car...

Dung, mud and bovine bothers aside, this is a real treat and should be visited by everyone who goes to Beaghmore up the road. If there were no fence, marsh and animal issues this would be a truly extraordinary site.

I was very surprised at how big this stone actually is, its about 10ft tall but is very wide and is almost banana shaped. It curves in heavily towards the base so it looks like it would fall over only for the sheer weight.

Behind the stone, about 7m away, is a steep, sharp drop down to the riverbank. Below the site is a figure of eight shaped pond, O’Kelly has one marked on an aerial photo as a possible source of material for Newgrange itself but I thought it was much further west.

The stone itself is surrounded by fencing. No problem I thought, I already walked four fields and climed four gates. Zap! Bloody tripod went flying after getting an unexpected shock from the electric fence... None of the other fences were electrified but dont be fooled, this one seems to be permanently on. I’m sure the rabbit I startled on arrival had a great laugh! Ended up taking photos from outside the fencing.

A genuine, bone-fide four poster! To get here you have to go up someones driveway and park at their house, so no matter what your view on one legged people is, if you want to see the four stones you’ve no choice but to knock on the door.

So, knock I did and explained to aforementioned monopodic man that I was looking for the stones, ‘hang on an I’ll switch off the telly’ was the response. I was prepared for a long, convoluted set of instructions. I wasn’t at all prepared for a one legged man to come tearing out from the side of the house on a quad bike.

I gathered I was to follow him in my car, follow I did despite much protest, straight into one field and right up to the gate of the next. Once inside the second field he brought me over to a spot about 60 paces to the north west where he says he discovered a large amount of burnt black soil when ploughing the field some years back. The site itself has not been excavated but he told me of a megalithic kist found nearby in the village which contained a burnt skeleton and some pottery.

Aubrey Burl says in his guidebook that a ‘playing card’ outlier sits 14m or so from the main site with a quartz block beside it but there was no trace of either. Then again Burl thought this site was in Waterford. There are a few large protruding stones quite close and a small square stone less than a foot high which looks for all intents and purposes like a miniature axial stone on the ‘west’ side.

I was very impressd with the site, the view and the intriguing confusion about the place. The farmer is one of the nicest I’ve met, up there with the farmers at Reanascreena and Carrigagulla so don’t hesitate to call in for a look if your anywhere nearby.

Oh-dear oh-dear oh-dear... Almost complete ruin isn’t the last indignity for this tomb, just to add a pinch of insult it now has a tree growing out of its rear end and a thick growth of brambles and nettles on its, cough, ‘good side’. It was almost as if it knew I was only here to avoid the traffic through New Ross. A dirty pox on that nuisance of a town! Its so bad even the main road out of the town brings you back into the town at the other end, gah!! Anyway, this snivelling wreck of a monument is probably only worth visiting if you are dropped into the field after an alien abduction. I’m sure it was quite nice in a former life but alas, no more.

This really is a beauty, it’s also an absolute bugger to get to. It sits two or three fields from the road depending on which way you come. This field is massive and yet seems to have no access gates anywhere! They must airlift the cows in. I ended up scrambling over the unusually high and broad field wall much further down the valley and walking back up. On the way back the bullocks had moved fields and cut off my escape route, had to climb a few more hedges to get back to the car.

The circle itself is wonderful, the stones have a heavily rubbed smooth surface and most are shot with quite a lot of quartz. The recumbent is very altar-like as Fourwinds has said and all the stones have a very heavy ‘presence’. Its a real pity the ground around them is so badly trampled by itchy cows. The view is surprisingly good and walking further down the hill allows a view of the stones against the skyline.

This looks like, a very nice but incomplete circle. I couldn’t get closer than the gate unfortunately because of a swarm of bullocks. I had ‘not great’ written on my map beside this one so was not intending on going to see until I spotted it through the field gate. Curse those bullocks! It does look pretty good from the gate even though the trees in FW’s pictures seem much closer in real life.

This ruined stone row lies just to the south of the forest track towards Carrigagulla NE stone circle and is just barely visible among the trees as you pass about 100 yards from the main road. The tallest stone would probably have stood between 10 and 12 feet high but its hard to tell as the forest floor is covered in a deep layer of moss, roots and leaves. This stone must have fallen quite recently as it now rests on the stump of a cut down tree. There is at least one stone broken, its small, thin stump stands very near to the remaining standing stone which is wearing a wonderful jacket of thick moss. A medium sized slab about 4-5ft (visible) in length lies beside the large fallen stone, it is almost free of moss but you can’t help wondering what this row (or whatever it was) may have looked originally. Probably quite impressive I’d say.

It’s likely the very closely planted trees root systems caused the tallest stone to fall.

Sits about 20 yards from the track and is very easy to get to.

This is a nice, if battered, stone circle. It is not a great stone circle however and hardly likely to cause awe in the casual visitor. Why then, when surrounded by some dramatic and downright jaw-dropping circles so nearby, are those with whetted appetites asked to fork out €2 to spend some time trying to figure out which end is up at Shronebirrane? No getting past it though and despite my indignant and incredulous look I had to hand over the cash to gain entry and a photocopied sheet with one of those B&W pics that is really just a square of blobs, if you stare long enough you might see the face of Jesus Christ or Juda Priest.

If you are really flush though you can walk the mountain path for another €4.

The circle itself is reduced to an arc of disjointed limbs, cowering nervously at the bottom of the cavernous hills surrounding it. The valley setting is spectacular but any sense of wonder is completly shattered by the bungalow plonked right beside the circle.

Much easier to find than I expected, it is well signposted from the centre of Castletownbere. Clearly a monument of local importance, it has very easy access and plenty of field space to allow you to stand back and consider how impressive it once must have been in its complete state. It would seem that destroying either one or both of the portals of these stone circles was sufficient to see off the pagan spectre and plenty of the stone circles in this part of the country have a buck-toothed appearance as a result.

Somehow this only adds to this site, the remaining stones couldn’t possibly appear more defiant and proud, this is one of those circles which seems to have a personality ot itself, apart from the human effort put into making and breaking it. A great site.

This is a very impressive stone, it stands on a knoll with views over the coast but inland it is surrounded on all sides by hills and mountains.

Clearly visible from the road as you drive down the hill into the harbour, it was surely a beacon for ancient mariners, given the sheer number of ancient remains in the area it possibly marks one of the busiest places for trade and rest along the coast.

Its worth knowing before visiting that you will be greeted on arrival by the people who own the land and for a €2 coin you will be given the nod and a badly printed sheet of info taken directly from the stonepages website.

This is a worrying trend in the locality, some landowners leave a donation box for you to exchange courtesies with a small contribution and there are few places that aren’t worth parting with a euro or two to visit if your getting signageand a decent trackway. Charging people up front though does leave you feeling ripped off when there is no service or added value being offered to the traveller.

It stands 5.3m tall and though it is clearly quite ancient it looks surprisingly modern, its shape and colour brings to mind the stones of Callanish and its weather beaten location with fine views of the harbour takes some beating.

The ogham insciption is fairly worn and very high up on the stone, it was also in the shade on my visit so did not come out in any photographs.

This is a beautiful circle in a wonderful location. It didn’t really stand out when I browsed through TME but when I looked up some pics on Megalithomania.com I knew this would be near the top of the list for the next tour of Cork/Kerry.

I took the words of those who were here previously seriously and left myself plenty of time to get here. It’s not incredibly far in terms of distance but it is a bit of a hairy journey. I could find no trace of any of the signs and walkways mentioned in TME and ended up relying on the sometimes dodgy combination of GPS and ‘as the crow flies’ navigation. I’m pretty sure I picked the most difficult route to get here, when I got to the circle I passed one of the Beara Way markers but looking back it seemed this track would lead me past the herd of crazy eyed bulls that loitered around the gate to the lane that would make the most direct route.
After getting mugged for €2 at both Ballycrovane and Shronebirrane I would not have been one bit surprised if the cows wanted a feckin toll to cross as well.

After falling through two hedges and over and under countless barbed wire fences, slipping into drainage trenches and getting torn on thorns I finally spotted the portal stone framed under a lovely tree. The sun was really scorching the ground when I finally sat and caught my breath against one of the old stones.

This circle is far better than in the photos, although overgrown it is wonderfully complete and the stones are perfectly chosen. It’s location is probably only second to Uragh, you can survey for miles withoug seeing a single bungalow and it takes no effort to cast your mind back to when these craggy charmers were dragged to this spot.

The only thing that detracted from this place was some clever person leaving a sheep skull and a slab of stone with a hand perfectly painted in sparkly pink nail varnish on the boulder burial...

Every once in a while you come across a place that puts your head in a spin and in all the confusion you just want to laugh. This is a very odd place. Very, very odd. After seeing a handful of pics in a picture library of a stone circle with some unusual looking arrangements around it, there was nothing else to be done only track this strange place down and see it for myself.

First of all it was only discovered when the site was being cleared to lay down gardens after the land had been purchased for development into a park. It has since been cleaned up and restored to an unknown extent. It now forms part of a walking trail around Millstreet Country Park, situated below and in sight of Knocknakilla Hill and its more famous stone circles.

The park has a visitor centre, restaurant, gardens, water courses complete with jumping salmon, wandering deer and this magnificent Bronze Age site.
When you first see it after a 15 minute walk from the visitor centre, the first thing that springs to mind is how well preserved the medium sized circle with its sub-two foot stones is. Then you cant help wondering about the intriguing arrangements of stones surrounding it. Then you read the information board and find out that the ‘circle’ is in fact that curious arrangement of slabs that looks like it cant decide whether its a ruined portal or wedge tomb. When complete this must have looked more like a five stone rectangle. The portals are set radially and the remaining side stone, its cropped opposite partner and the axial form a neat box.
The stone still standing (barely) are over almost four foot tall and a pile of left overs lie to one side.

The radial circle is an almost perfect circle that could have been transplanted from Beaghmore in Tyrone, it is similar in size to the smaller circles there but obviously the radial setting of the stones make this pretty unique. Near the center is a fallen stone about three foot long. To the North West is a fallen three stone row, to the south west of this row are two more prostrate long stones. To the south east of the circle is a five foot outlier almost fallen into the circle itself. Other stones jut out of the grass aroundabout.

This is a fascinating place, full of oddities and mysteries (not least why its still almost unknown). The park can easily fill a full day on its own but you could spend most of it here at this strange complex.

The familiar sight of Haroldstown sprouting up from lush green grass is no more... The field has been ploughed to within an inch of the dolmen, a bit of a shock to see it when coming around the bend. I really hope it will be a cereal crop and not vegetables, that would be a very ill-fitting setting for this magnificent sculpture. The whole field has been cleared right down to the river edge and all the interesting boulders spread around the bank are now piled unceremoniously in a heap. It looked as depressing as the weather.

Although the trees around the circle have not yet been cleared, the circle itself is completly clear and very easy to make out now. The area in the middle has been flattened, seems like a large group of people have been here recently and I also saw a small pile of loose stones beside the circle. These apparently are being used to fill in the gaps and make the circle ‘complete’ for whatever purpose and shallow sockets can be seen in the gaps of the circle.

Its still extremely difficult to photograph!

This stone row was marked on my Ireland Road Map and since I was in Cavan town I decided to investigate. After following the map I came to a parking area with a half buried sign for ‘Finn McCool’s Fingers’ which sounded like it could be what I was looking for or else Birdseye had dumped good ole’ Captain Birdseye and rebranded. Luckily my first guess was correct.

The steep track up the hill must be treacherous in bad weather but it was well trampled, this site seems popular with someone. The forest marked on the map has been mostly cleared save for a few fallen trees blocking the track at the top of the hill but once you get to the site the views are very expansive.

The stones themselves are not massively tall (highest is just short of six foot) but are quite bulky and its easy to see why they were given the nickname. Four standing stones form a row with a low fallen/natural stone at the rear and a few metres in front of the row is what looks like a natural outcrop which is around a foot high but very wide and quite flat. In all the arrangement does resemble five fingers and a thumb (the outcrop) sticking out from the hill below.

There was evidence of recent fires and other alcohol fuelled activity here but the stones are untouched and the rest of the plateau is untouched. A nice place to sit in the mid-day sun but maybe not as hospitable on a rainy/windy day.

To get here follow the R188 from Cavan to Cootehill under the new bypass bridge, take the next right turn to the very small crossroads, turn left and keep going over the hill for about 2km until you see a small sign (Finn McCools fingers) on the right in the hedge in a small parking area. Park here and hike up the hillside track and turn left over the stiles, the track brings you straight to the stones.

If you haven’t been to Kilmogue dolmen before, or even if you have, now is the best time to go. The hedges and overgrowth have been cleared to the great credit of the landowner or whoever took the time to clear the site up a bit and its possible to see the dolmen much better than previous visits here where I failed to get a single decent photo. The far side of the dolmen on the other side of the field wall is possibly now the best looking side though both views are impressive. Maybe its just the surprise at being able to see so much more than usual. Look at the photos and plan your journey now!

Truly a massive row, goes without saying of course. Despite its massive size this wasn’t really a highlight site for me, I’m not sure why. Maybe it was the proximity to the house and road which was very unexpected, maybe it was the crappy weather or maybe, just maybe, it was the slight hangover.

The row is odd, the stones are not set with their aixs along the line of the row, they all angle slightly so overhead they would look like the profile of a mutli-blade razor or a giants cheese grater. The stone lying on the ground is an oddity in itself in that it is completely out of character from the rest of the stones and doesn’t seem to belong.

I will definitley visit again, hopefully I’ll feel different.

A few people have called this the best stone circle in Cork, if not Ireland and after being here I have to agree completely. You cant see this circle until you are very near it, but the circle itself has amazing views and what struck me most is that you can see a sliver of sea from here. I dont know why but I felt a sudden realisation that this was incredibly important to the site. I pictured in my head people gathering here and watching for boats returning or arriving and maybe lighting a fire as a beacon. Strange things this place does to you.

I stood leaning against the strangely pillow-like recumbent stone for almost an hour in the rain and it didn’t feel too bad at all. After two failed attempts at finding it, maybe it was a mix of triumph and delight that it was indeed worth it.

The swamp around it is foul, very foul. There is a lush growth of pond weed, its that bad. Luckily I spotted two stepping stones into the circle just to the right of the portals and was able to miss out on the delights of the horse dung polluted water.

After an hour or so the sun came out and I took dozens of photos, so exhilarated by the sunburst that I failed to notice one of the horses in the field had decided to steal what it could from my camera bag that I left open in the scramble to catch the sun. It took several Neanderthal-like screams before he dropped my 50mm lens from his teeth and settled for a lick of my telephoto. Not so much like the horse-whisperer, more like the horse-screecher.

I will now dispense possibly the easiest directions to this site... EVER! Travel on the N71 from Rosscarberry to Skibbereen until you come to a small tree enclosed place with a bridge called Connonagh (OS W244 388), take a right here (sign for Reanascreena half buried in the ditch) and take the next right. There is a large farm entrance with concrete walls on the left, go through the next field gate on the left and into the next field. Travel to the back of this field. Voilà!

This site is featured in The Megalithic European as ‘Monkey’s Bridge’ though I asked a local from the village and they had not heard the name before.

The reason I was asking a local is because the directions in the book are great, if you are travelling in the right direction. However the book doesn’t specify which direction so if you enter Bweeng from the south there is no way in hell you will see either the shrine mentioned or the sign for Nad. Even on the way back they are hard to spot. Take the first turn left once you come to the village if you are coming from the south, take the last right turn if coming from the north. Keep going until you pass over the bridge then park at the next gate on the left.

The taller stone is huge, the smaller one is still quite a large stone, my photo above does not give a proper perspective so the smaller looks a lot more squat than it is.

I was here for one of the most gorgeous sunsets of the year so far, very pink with high scattered clouds and a huge almost full moon looming up behind the stones. Unfortunately my battery ran out so I couldn’t get any moon pics.

What a dissapointment! I was expecting massive stones jutting out of the horizon magnificently, instead I saw tinchy little stones cowering up to a pine plantation.

Luckily that was just the view from the road. Up close these stones are fantastic! My first large stone row and what an introduction. This is a great site, if the plantation and large clump of trees behind it were gone it would be spectacular. I spent a long time here taking in every angle and marvelling at the stones as the light changed, the row was pointing directly at the setting sun. The fallen stone is a shame but it does show how some things are not set in stone as it would seem and should be taken care of no matter how invincible it looks.

Over one hundred photos later I made my way back to the car with that warm feeling that today I really saw something.

The mysterious circle at last. It really is a magical place, I wish I had been able to climb up the hillside among the dense trees to find this clearing. The circle and its low ditch is like a sacred sanctum, if you look at the photos the surrounding tree branches look like hands reaching down towards the stones...

I met up with the legendary Tom FourWinds in Baltinglass and on we drove down a trackway with pot holes you could bury a horse in. Turns out we share quite a few interests; old stones, photography, fishkeeping, getting the hell out of mountain forests before its pitch dark etc etc. It was great to visit a site (especially one like this) with someone who you dont have to keep convincing that the muddy, trackless trek up to some old stones is worth the time and effort, and it was a pleasure. Sometimes it seems more productive to think out loud and have your thoughts bounced back.

But to the circle... Someone had stood some buried stones upright, little runts that at first made the circle look more complete, then made it look totally off-balance. Without careful observation it seemed that the builders were hedging their bets with the axis alignment here, its definitley close to the mid-winter sunset but which stone is the axial? Hard to tell but all might be revealed (literally) if the trees to the west were removed.

This is a place you could spend many hours at, just listening to the sounds overhead and in the trees, and not feel like civilisation was observing you.

This stone is really great, its also much taller than I remembered from my last visit. The grooves are very deep and perhaps are enhanced natural features of the stone. Its almost three metres tall and is clearly visible from the road from Tullow to the N80.

While I was taking some sunset photos I heard a very menacing snorting noise very close behind me. While the field seemed empty when I climbed over the gate, I was now face to face with a massive bull who was very unhappy to have visitors. I very slowly gathered up my stuff and paced back to the gate, with the bull and four others walking about three metres behind every step of the way. I could hear the snorting getting faster and faster and about 6 metres from the gate I made a run for it, throwing my tripod over the gate, the bull charged at his point and stopped just short of the gate, stamping and making very nasty noises and I was still not over the top but luckily he seemed satisfied I had left for good so he then turned and charged at another bull.

This is probably the closest I’ve been to serious injury out taking pictures so please, check every corner of the field you are in and adjoining fields if the gates are open, this could have ended up very seriously. I know a guy who lost a kidney and was lucky to be alive after a bull attackd so its so important to be aware of your surroundings even if you are distracted by some amazing stones.

A full moon brought me back to Clontygora, hoping to get a better picture of the moon between the superbly shaped court stones than last year (cianmcliam.smugmug.com/gallery/345408/1/13728798/Large) but I only confirmed what I thought already, its impossible to get a nice detailed moon shot by time its moved into the right position because the rest of the image is black, needs to be done during the late evening when the sky is still fairly bright.

Another dissapointment was the discovery that a HUGE new barn/workshop type thing has been built right across the road and is impossible to ignore while here.

Nevertheless, Clontygora is still a great place to be and hats off to whoever keeps the grass so neat. Of all the sites I’ve been to though, this place has the highest concentration of dog-dirt I’ve ever come across, even in the chamber. Be careful where you tread!

Poulnabrone may be another victim of the ‘pop megalithic’ syndrome wherby its immense popularity, ease of access, enormity of photographs and visitors means that it is so often belittled and dismissed. Probably the same phenomenon that causes an underground band to become instantly unpopular as soon as they get mainstream attention. Poulnabrone is a masterpiece of its kind, the design and engineering are superlative and if it were not for the rope surrounding it would be perfect. If this was discovered today or even if it were located miles from the nearest track it would get the proper respect and admiration it deserves. Get here very early or very late to avoid the embarrasingly uninformed tour guides and uninterested tour guests.

S**t! Uuughhhhh...... crap. F**K!!... B****X .......ARRRGGHHH slime!!!!.... ugh, at last.. Wwwwwwwwwwwoooow, maaan!!!

This is the sound of a person visiting Uragh for the first time, even the second or third time. The donation box now politely demands an ‘entry fee’ of one euro but if they are going to charge the least they can do is lay even a third-rate causeway or stepping stone path towards the hill. This weekend the ground was atrocious and I had to encourage an Australian couple to keep going after they turned back. They weren’t convinced. If you could only see the circle you would know it was worth every slip and slime.

Now I’m back again and its before dawn, not quite pitch black but there is not even a breath of wind and it is so quiet it feels unreal. This circle is like a painted back drop for a film, you simply couldn’t dream up a location like this.

Visit this place now, you have to see dawn breaking above the hills and waterfalls before you shuffle off this planet.

This circle is easy to find and also easy to reach. If you are on a hanglider with a pair of binoculars taped to your face that is...

This was my second time looking for this place, I gave up the first time and I have quite good eyesight. I actually ‘saw’ it and was glad to see the farmer was tending his sheep, until he pointed out a different spot, much further away! ‘You have a pair a tough boots with ya, dont ya?’ ‘Um no... but um, these walking shoes are watertight..’ Cut to farmer laughing, sort of nervously at first then building up to a hearty belly laugh bordering on the evil. Great start.

They should use this place to train the SAS, its murder getting across the bog after rain the few days beforehand. Barbed wire, super-slippy rocks, swamp holes disguised as tufts of grass, those rocks placed and balanced carefully so that when you stand on them they fart out water and muck onto your other shoe...

When you are there, you dont even think about your trousers being knee deep in crap, this spot is like a 3D postcard, spectacular doesn’t do it justice.

The stones are all high and have a craggy pointed-ness that makes them human like in stature similar to Ardgroom Outward up the road, they must be good to hold your attention up here but they were chosen very well. I didn’t want to leave here, and that wasn’t just because of the dastardly trek back to the car.

Ballyrenan Portal Tombs, 16th October 2005.

Very sad to see this place completly overgrown again, only the capstone poking out of the undergrowth is visible as you pass. The side opposite from the road is better, slightly. I did find however that a camera monopod makes a good swiping implement for claring vegetaion, after 15 minutes you could see the whole of one side again but I was too tired then to even make a start at the more overgrown side where you cant even walk.

I really liked it here, the morning was still bright and the tombs still retain a lot of presence despite their state and overgrown surroundings next to a barn.

The capstone-less tomb would have been very nice in its original state, I think I would have liked it better than its larger mate. The larger tomb gives the impression that it was a ‘throw it up and see if it sticks’ affair, still very nice and a little eccentric.

Maybe a discrete word in someones ear might bring some sunshine back into these tombs existence.

Drumskinny, 16th October 2005.

After a spectacular sunrise at Beltany Tops, the morning took a more gloomy and dank feel by the time I got to Drumskinny. It was 10.30am on a Sunday yet I wasn’t the first here, a couple were leaving just as I arrived.

The circle is really nice, ‘nice’ is a good word because it does feel ‘nice’ but not quite ‘right’. It can be hard to ignore the newness of the place though the stones are quite charming, it feels like it could be one of those modern public artworks you see in pretentious ‘Business Parks’. Its even been signed by the heritage people! (The missing stones have been carved to indicate they are not original). I didnt notice from other photos that its on such a slope, maybe this adds to the unrealness of the place, maybe the weather was affecting my mood...

Beaghmore Complex, 15 October 2005.

Fourwinds and A. Weir have some superb shots of this site with sunlight raking over the stones and grass and this is what I hoped to see before sunset today. Unfortunately I wasn’t counting on Saturday rush hour traffic in Armagh and Dungannon and missed the best light.

Arriving on a very windy evening I was not dissapointed for long, this place is incredible. You can almost feel the frenzy of activity here, the fervour with which the rows were scattered around the rings as if the world was about to end. Some theories consider this could well have been the scenario the builders thought they were facing as the peat bog swallowed up the workable land.

Trying to understand this place is like trying to square the circle using an abacus. Excuse the pun!

Beltany at dawn, 16th October 2005.

After the mind boggling Beaghmore at sunset the evening before, Beltany feels a wilder, more foreboding place than the almost amusingly scattered Tyrone complex. Maybe this was due to the fact that I arrived here while it was still dark and the tree lined laneway up to the circle was much longer and spookier than I had anticipated.

There are lots of curiously shaped stones, the two largest stones are extraordinary. This site was once a true masterpeice, now in its slightly ruined state it still hits the psychological nerve ends.

Even after dawn there was not enough light to find all the marked stones but I did find the large stone with dozens of cup marks on its inner face and attempted to get a good photo of them.

Spectacular just doesn’t do this site justice. The astonishing capstone matched with the curvaceous portal stones make this possibly the most impressive sculpture in Ireland, ancient or modern.

You enter through a gate behind the church in Kilclooney More village (not through the field directly behind the church which gets shoe-suckingly boggy very quickly). Ardara where I stayed is a bumpy ten minute drive away and makes a good base for visiting this area. Take some time to explore the amazing landscapes around Dungloe and Glenties while you here.

The small tomb is cute, the fact that its almost ruined adding injury to insult of playing second fiddle to the beast next to it.

In a pile of rocks along the pathway lurks a large suspiciously capstone-like slab resting on two boulders, perhaps it was a discarded capstone, quickly forgotten when the extraordinary present capstone was hauled onto the site.

Kilclooney Dolmen seems to be gaurded by a large black dog, at first I thought the dog came with some tourists who arrived but it turned out not to be theirs. The dog stayed with me until I left as it got dark. Next morning I arrived at 7am for sunrise and the dog was waiting at the tombs again. He seems quite friendly, certainly a bit more than the edgy bulls that were moving around the dense undergrowth like hippos in a pond.

Exactly located as in The Megalithic European, I was on the way to Reanascreena when I stopped for a coffee and saw these stones in Julian’s book. Going with my gut feeling I change my plans and I’m glad in a way.

The tallest of the group of three is superb, reminding me of the massive outlier next to Uragh stone circle, its nearest neighbour is wonderfully craggy and splintered. All the stones are well worn from cattle rubbing on their thin edges, the tall one is especially blade like.

The hedge beside the group of three is a top contender for most undesirable hedge of the year, being too close to appreciate the stones atop of the ridge and perhaps hiding remants of the rest of this monument. Some very large slabs are piled up beneath the bushes.

I was glad of the electric fence dividing the field in two, the bulls here were the most aggressive I’ve encountered, all stamping hoofs and snorting nostrils. Beware they aren’t grazing in the same field as the stones because you cant see most of the field from the gate which looks like its part time electrified too.

The weather brightened up as I was leaving and I had to enjoy the sunset in the Cork traffic...

Pick a nice day to come here, its really spellbinding in the late evening on a fine day. That bloody pallet is still there though...

I took a good wander around the vicinity today, I never noticed how steep the valley is below the tomb, I didn’t go all the way to the bottom but it looks fantastic perched on the edge of the ridge. This is another tomb I find difficult to imagine a cairn around, there is the large platform remains there but it is such a perfect angular structure it would be a shame to hide it away.

There is now an area cleared across the road which, if it is going to be parking, would fit quite a few cars. Most likely another bungalow though...

This was a nice surprise, the tomb gets little attention due to the spectacular Aughnacliffe Dolmen in the village but its very nice indeed. Even the locals downplayed it, saying it was better to see the other one instead.

The field it is in is down a very narrow boreen and there is very little room to park, best bet is to go past the field and park outside the next house on the right, its hard to tell whether someone still lives there. Its easy to miss as you drive past because in the field opposite there seems to be alot of stones sticking out of the ground that look like the ruins of something or other.

The tomb is larger than I had expected, its at a funny angle but this isn’t as noticeable now that the field is so overgrown and it blends in perfectly in the warm evening sun. It clouded over as I was here but for the ten minutes the sun was out it was very nice indeed.

This tomb almost made me laugh out loud when I saw it first, as you cross the field you can see the top of a luxuriant crop of leaves sticking up over the bank. The thought ‘surely it can’t be...’ was going through my head but yes, there it stood like a peacock pining for a hen.

The tomb itself is great, even the broken and crumbled portal stone cant detract from this one. the construction seems odd, the two back stones form a V shape negating the need for a closing slab. It appers to sit in a long wide cairn but is not in line with it, the portals would have pointed off to the right. Maybe the low mound stretching behind it was not a cairn but it does seem like it.

I saw one ruined passage tomb near to the tomb and a possible second slightly higher above that, the side of the valley seems to step and the tombs are in a mini plateau.

If you are going here, the first thing to look for is not the tomb, its the grumpy bull and his family that hide in the next field until they can cut off your path and out-flank you. They seemed to wait until I was 50 metres away from my camera pack and tripod before launching the manouveres but luckily only the weeny little baby bull looked like he wanted to get physical. Only got a few photos as a result. I will be back!

This is a beautiful circle and the stones look as ancient as they should do, covered with a thick layer of lichen. Some stones are very human like in stature and shape and get really creepy when it darkens.

It rained heavily while I was here and I was very glad a stone causeway of sorts has been laid to take you to the wooden step-over that brings you into the field with the stones. Its still a bit boggy in wet conditions but could be a lot worse. Unlike some sites the locals (landowner?) seem to encourage visitors, there is a little purple sign to point you in the right direction as its not immediately obvious which is the best way to get to it.

The views are spectacular, even in mist and drizzle, the fog blowing over the mountains above adding to the epic-like feel.

No photos this time though.

As you can see in some of the photos above there is now a rope around the small cairn with a little sign ironically asking people to respect the moument. There was some small scale building work going on near the gate to the tomb at the roadside last time I was here and I had the horrible feeling they were building a turnstile or something to ‘manage’ visitors. Turns out its going to be a small wall probably with a plaque and some info on it. Or maybe a stall for selling “Mum went to Poulnabrone and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt made by a six year old in the Far East” type stuff.

While I was here I met some genuine bone fide idiots: two were dancing around it on one leg in their bermuda shorts making ‘pow wow wow wow’ noises and another was asserting to the older folk that sacrificed animals were placed on top to please the sun god. Marvelous.

The extremely large Ballyganner tomb was the first visit today, this was the last, therefore I could appreciate the massive size of this with not too much of a comparison to the more visited site.

Its fairly easy to spot as you reach the top of the hill on the farmtrack, you can see the front edge of the huge capstone. As you get nearer though it dissapears from view and you have to keep your bearings to find it.

Its BIG! Probably second in size to BGS I. The capstone is in place but is either two seperate stones or has broken, the inside has cairn debris piled up. It now also has a large tree as a companion and it seems to be growing from the tombs rear end. In front is a small altar like outcrop.

What a little gem this is, so close to the road too!

I noticed something interesting in the next field that got me excited, something I haven’t seen mentioned before anywhere. In the next field south of the tomb there is a set of large stones in a rough line very close to one another. The middle stone has a very clear U shaped groove in it and on each side is a large boulder. If you stand on the south end and look through the groove from where the south boulder is, your looking straight at the tomb above! If you look from the north end (from the tomb entrance direction) the groove points directly at a notch in the horizon where two hills meet. Very intriguing. This tomb, as has ben pointed out before, is unusually aligned north-south.

See the image above for a view looking northish at the tomb.

I spent quite some time here, scanning the tomb and scanning the countryside for something that would make the little red dots on the OS map make sense. Too many thornbushes and too little time..

It should have been perfect! Such a beautiful little circle in an amazing landscape, at sunset...

Its easy to find as long as you dont take the left at the fork in the lane, its signposted well apart from here. The little honesty box really bemused the people who were leaving as I arrived, I gave the ‘subtley suggested’ donation of €2. From the other photos I assumed it was very high up on a mountain side but its on quite a low ridge compared to the surroundings. The waterfall in the photos above seems to be very weather dependent as I could not see it at all but I could make out its path down the mountainside.

There had been glorious sunshine all day so I was a bit dissapointed that it clouded over as I made my way across the soggy bog. When the sun did eventually come out, so did the flies, the most savage swarm of the little buggers I’ve ever had the misfortune of walking into. They were truly vicious, they got in everywhere, down my neck, and up my sleeves. I had to retreat to the car defiantly taking zoom shots from the top of the hill on the way back.

I don’t usually get odd twinges at most sites. Maybe it was just the fact that the portal stones were as tall as me, but walking through them felt like the feeling you get going through a police checkpoint.

The electric fence is too damn close, other than that this is a nice circle with some odd bits and pieces lying around outside it.

The southern part of the ridge it sits on is rapidly becomming engulfed in briars, hopefully someone in the locality keeps it in check.

I nearly hit a ditch on the main road to Rosscarberry when I saw this clinging to the side of the valley. I wasn’t expecting it to be so near the road, in fact I thought I wouldn’t have time to go and find it at all. It ‘looks’ accessible from the road and with all the gorse and bracken removed from around it, it stuck out like a sore thumb.

After a few minutes knocking on the door of the farm and shouting into the various barns I gave up looking for permission and directions and made my way downhill. I probably went the hard way, figuring it would be easier to see looking up the ridge rather than down, there may be a path there somewhere but it was a pretty hairy climb up to it once I finally found it.

It is a very nice tomb, the chamber is too collapsed to climb inside though and it leans at a seemingly dangerous angle. It has two plate like stones lying horizontally on the backstones supporting the capstone, careful planning and practical construction most likely saved this tomb from total collapse.

A nice tomb with plenty of character.

Not as easy to find as I had thought, though it is well signposted once you get near to it. The portal tomb is fantastic, in a secluded little grove all of its own it seems to enjoy a little protection from the elements and agriculture/development. Because you cant see it until you are right beside it it seems all the more impressive and imposing when you do reach it after the anticipation of walking up the trackway and through the gate.

It has been rebuilt and supported of course, but most of the evidence is hidden inside the tomb or covered in moss and undergrowth so that from the outside it looks pretty much untouched.

While I struggled to get photos while crouched in the bushes and wearing a pair of gloves to stop my fingers freezing off (surely the one great advantage of plastic camera bodies!) I wasnt getting photos as good as this tomb deserves. I was about to pack up and leave when a torrential shower poured down on top of me, the choice was either to make a run for the car or get inside and hope for the best! The ugly concrete beam inside the tomb doesnt add much to the feel of the tomb, but it makes a practical seat right between two uprights, giving great shelter!

Once the rain had stopped I decided to try using the flash in wireless mode after fiddling around with it inside during the shower. The first few looked promising, part of the tomb is under the cover of a tree and shaded from the light, the photos looked a lot more balanced with a bit of illumination over this part to the front of the tomb, and under the capstone. Getting in closer and as low as possible from the opposite side, facing the sun, I could feel the tomb looming over me and with the widest possible angle I got a few shots that really show the carachter of the place and the dominance of the tomb. At last! All thanks to the rain and bitter wind :)

Photos here: cianmcliam.smugmug.com/gallery/353977

Wow, what a place! The ‘ring’ is huge, a well preserved high bank with steep sides apparently used as a sports and recreation centre by the locals! Dozens of people walking, cycling, kiting, playing football and jogging, with a small army of children using the megalithic tomb in the centre as a climbing frame-cum-fortress. Great. At least it does have easy access and a carpark though I would have traded that for a less crowds and more quiet...

The tomb itself is very nice, it does have traces of grafitti and the stones are rubbed smooth from the feet of thousands of kids but at least its still standing and isn’t enclosed by an ugly fence.

I’ve seen lots of great photos of this tomb (one won a stage of photographer of the year in a magazine) and it seemed the kids would prevent me from getting a few moments alone to study it and the surrounding henge (with nearby trees). Slowly circling a group of young children playing under the watchful eye of their parents isnt really a great idea so I took the opportunity to walk the entire circumference of the henge in the freezing wind, dodging dogs and joggers. The park has a sign warning that the gates are closed at 4 o’clock in the evening. It was a quater to. Marvellous.

Five to four and the crowds vanish into thin air, a couple and their kids arrive to fly their kite so figuring they must be wise to the gate times I made my way to the tomb in the centre as quick as possible unpacking the camera gear as I go. After the experiences using wireless fill flash at Gaulstown Dolmen, I pretty much knew what I wanted in my head so in the ten minutes I had the place almost to myself I got shots of every angle with different sidelighting arrangements, trees in the distance lined up nicely though the sunset was a bit of a damp squib.

I also realised why I should always carry the tripod with me, the angle of the flash from the ground is just too low and the little stand thing Nikon bundle doesn’t work so great in the grass. In future I’ll bring at least one if not two tripods to hold either the flash or the camera, this should hopefully avoid the bright patch of grass along the line of flash. Much better.

A great place to visit, though make it early to avoid the multitudes!

Photos here:
cianmcliam.smugmug.com/gallery/359909/1/14303199