bawn79

This is an interesting site and the history is conflicting with some saying it was built by the Normans and others saying it dates back further.
The fact that it is associated with Fairy music for me at least suggests that it dates further than this.
To get there turn off the n8 for Cahir and then follow the sign for knockgraffon by turning right over the motorway bridge. From there keep with the road and u cant miss it. It is on the left hand side
I really like this site, its very peaceful on top and the views are amazing. For me there is a definite feeling of this being older than a motte and it would be interesting to see what excavation would reveal. Even geophysics would reveal a lot id say.

This bullaun is to the left rear of the church in Ballindangan. Not the most impressive of bullaun stones, it is located beside some fairly smelly toilets.

This is a lovely standing stone, seemingly it is 3.4m tall. It is just outside the town of Glanworth (near the tomb of Labbacallee).
Access isnt too bad. I parked at a new house on the left hand side with a gate into a field with some wheat in it and went in thru about 3 fields all of which had crops in them but you could walk along the edge. From the gate it is about 500m.
One edge of the stone at the top has an unusual groove shape in it, like a U shape.

This is harder to get to than u would think.
It looks to be in good condition and in state care but it is actually about two fields in past a farmyard with no access to it. The road is a dead end and there is nowhere to park so i just left it as far in off the road as I could and quickly got in and out.
Its a pity because its a nice site and it would be nice to spend more time at it.

From the village of Ardpatrick you cant really miss it.
The town below has an interesting information board with the following info about Ardpatrick.

Even now, hundreds of years after the last monks left the summt, it radiates timelessness and separation from the modern world below. However Christain monks were not the first to appreciate the prominence of this hill, which is part of the Ballyhouras. A series of earthen banks and enclosures near the summot date from the Iron Age (500BC – 500AD). Its later adaption as a monastic settlement suggests that it had a religious significance prior to the arrival of Christianity.
According to local tradition, Saint Patrick founded the monastery in the fifth century. In later times, it collected tributes (payments?) from all the province of munster, which were then paid to Patricks Archdioscese of Armagh. The round tower, north-west of the church ruin, (of which only a stump now remains), is evidence of Ardpatricks ecclesiastical importance.

I didnt even realise what this was when I first visited it. I found the bit of folklore online and thought that is something unusual, a submerged souterain.
It is located just outside of the town of Kilfinnane and is signposted.
There is also a second well in the same field as it.
Sorry about the poor picture, next time Im passing Ill post a better one.

Its funny this hill-fort is signposted from the road but when you get there, there isnt a path or anything. Ive since read that it is on private property and there is no access!
I stopped by a lane that leads to a farmyard which doesnt have a house attached to it.
It is only about 500m from the road.
The rath itself has great 360 views of the hills around it. The trench between the rings of the ring-fort are very deep and the middle part of the rath is raised up, probably to about 4-5 metres above the surrounding land which gives it a very commanding position.
What really interested me about the site was the reference in the folklore to it being a possible site of “Teamhair Luachra”.

I didnt think such a lovely site could be located so close to Dublin.
However it appears that its vicinity to Dublin could also be its downfall with plans for a port here.
The bay really is lovely and my thinking would be that the mounds are located here due to the abundance of sea food that would have been obtainable here.
The 5 mounds are covered with crops this time of year so it is best to access via the shoreline if this is possible.

The western Pap is harder to get to and looks to me to have been less tampered with.
From the eastern Pap you have to head into the bosom of the paps and back up again. The bottom of the bosom is pretty wet and this is after a really dry spell in Ireland so I think if the weather was wet at all this part could be very soggy.
Its about 0.8 of a km from the eastern to the western Pap and its a tough up and down.
The eastern Pap is smaller than the western one however the nipple is bigger.
Once you are on the eastern pap getting back to the car can be tricky so make sure and save some energy for the return trip.

The eastern pap is the bigger of the two and the one I feel that is the most visited.
To reach it drive up the long track that is marked on the OS map that leads up to the lake on the eastern side.
The track gets rough after the lake but keep going until you come to a gate and some forestry. This is the best place to set off climbing from and there are some tracks up the hill.
Saying that its a tough climb with a very steep slope.
The cairn itself is unusual in that it is built kinda in the style of a cathair with the stones laid horizontally on top of each other rather than just heaped randomly.
The nipple I would has been modified and built up recently but perhaps it is keeping to tradition.
The info board gives the size of the cairn as being 4m and a diameter of 20m so I will go with that.
There are panoramic views from up here to countless other hills. The info board also notes that it is thought that both these cairns are megalithic tombs and that they are aligned to the setting sun.

The City of Shrone is a very interesting site as the information boards attest due to its continous use since the Neolithic and its relationship with the Paps of Anu.
To get there best to head to Rathmore and there is a road to the west of the town that leads almost directly to the site.
It is interesting that the road itself form a circle leading to the cathair. Maybe this was once part of a pattern.
There is an information sign at the school just before the entrance to the road into The City and a second information sign just at The City.
The second sign kinda points you south to the Paps while The City itself is to the north of the sign in behind some old farm sheds. Not exactly the setting I expected for a “City”.
The OS map points to an ogham stone around the cathair but I couldnt find it.
The holy well just to the west of the cathair, although modernised’ is lovely as it contiunous bubbles up and the water tasted great.
The cross inscribed slabs are interesting because they look as if they have been ‘renewed’ or rescratched recently.
I met a few people around the site and they all seemed very friendly to people coming to The City.

1.2m high standing stone near a lime kiln and an the outline of a rectangular shaped building so you would wonder about its date.

Not a lot to see here, looks to me as if the cairn that was up here was robbed to build a wall.
The Carraigapuckaun of the area name seems to be a big rock where a group from Kilfinnane outdoor adventure were learning how to absail.

This is also in the vicinity and much easier to see from the road. It looks like a worked stone of some sort or the other. There is some metal drilled into the top of it and the top is pyramid shaped. I happen to meet the farmer that owns the field and he told me that there was a mound around it and that as far as he knew it was very old. He also did a lot of contract work in the fields around Dromline and can never recall seeing a standing stone there that looked like the picture I have of it. However he did recall there being a standing stone in Dromline in Kavanaghs farm.

I was on the trail of Roth Ramach a standing stone that was meant to have been part of the druid Mogh Ruiths Flying Wheel in the townland of Dromline which is very near here. No sign of Roth Ramach but I did find this unmarked standing stone about 0.5m high with some quartz in the head of it. I met the farmer nearby and he did a lot of contract work in the fields around Dromline and can never recall seeing a standing stone there that looked like the picture I have of it. However he did recall there been a standing stone in Dromline in Kavanaghs farm.

According to Mountainviews Knockshanahullion means ‘hill of the old holly’ or ‘hill of the old steep slope’.
Thankfully its an easy climb compared to Temple Hill. Knockshanahullion is readily reached the road at R 983 089. Incidentally, this road at 450m is easily the highest of the passes across the Knockmealdowns. Follow the Avondhu Way until you come to Knockclugga.
The cairn itself has really been tampered with a number of shelters in it now. Its bigger than the cairn on Temple Hill. It cant be seen from directly below but only from a few miles either side. To the south you can see out to sea.
The cairn is maybe 4m high with a diameter of 20-30m. I think with the amount of digging into the cairns middle it is unlikely that it could still contain a passage.

Mountainviews.ie records the name Temple Hill as meaning ‘hill of the church’.
Ive passed by this mountain so many times and wondered about the size of the cairn.
It is big but not as huge as I hoped. The cairn itself has been dug out in the middle to form a shelter. Normally you would be pretty pissed off with that but believe me you really need as much shelter as you can get up here. I climbed up on a nice warm calm day down at ground level but by the time I got to 785m some serious winds had whipped up. Going up here on any kind of windy day would be very dangerous so if anyone is thinking of heading up be careful.
Could the cairn conceal a passage tomb? I dont know really, there is a slight depression on the eastern side of the tomb nothing major really. The middle of the tomb is pretty robbed out but I would still think there would be sufficient depth below it to conceal a passage.
The cairn itself must be 3-5m high, diameter 20m?. Not sure really it was hard to tell with the wind, the western side seems to be very close to what looked like a drop so I didnt venture to close.
To get up there will take about 3-4hr round trip depending where you take off from and really there is no easy way up.
I drove up to a farmyard at R857203 and followed the Pigeonbrook River for about 0.5km and then decided to climb up via a dried out stream bed climbing about 300m in height. Then I just plodded along up the 2km at a fairly ok pace. Coming back down I followed the Pigeonrock river but beware because it is a V shaped valley and pretty hazardous.

I believe the fort on this is marked as a ceremonial enclosure. What I find most interesting about this site is that it is the one major hill between Ballyhouras/Knockfeerina and the high lands around Lough Gur.

Knocktwo is about 105m high and really dominates the surrounding landscape.
The best way in seems to be to the rear of a stud farm so I havent been to the top yet.
There arent that many lakes in Limerick so it is interesting to see this site located near to one.

Its not every day you find an unmarked standing stone of this size and height.
This is about 3m high and probably the tallest stone in Limerick so you never know what is out there until you go looking for it.
Amazingly this site is just beside a back-road not far from Bruff and it also has the fairy hill of Knocfeerina in the background.
The stone itself has some unusual looking cup shapes on one side.

This is listed as a possible henge in www.archaeology.ie.
However after both looking at google earth and visiting the site there really doesnt seem to be any sign of this on the ground or from the air so I will be interested to see what the Limerick inventory says about it when it comes out.
The ruins on Bulgadenhall seem to be of medieval date however there is a long cursus feature to the east of the possible henge that is interesting.

This standing stone is about a mile south of Bruff. The stone is one of those thin ones that seem to be around this part of limerick and is about 1.2m high.
In the picture you can see Knockfeerina in the background.

This seems to be marked as a ring-fort for some reason but this has a water channel around it which to me would suggest barrow rather than ring-fort.
Also the size of it and its proximity to Ballinascaula make this a possibility of being another one of this part of Limericks jumbo size barrows.
It must be about 5m high and Im not sure of the diameter but its big.

This standing stone is about 2 fields in from the road and trickier to get to than the map suggests.
It is pretty non-descript maybe about 0.5m high just alongside a farm track.

I met the farmer who lives near here on the way back from this mound. He told me it was a motte, however judging by the size of it I’m not so sure. What he did tell me that was interesting is that there is a natural rock swimming pool near to this mound and this got me thinking of ceremonies and all that kind of stuff.
Another thing interesting by this bit of a mound is the echo effect that the river valley across from it produces.
The mound itself is covered in scrub and really could be anything!

This is an interesting looking standing stone about 1m high. Its very gnarled and phallic looking. It is adjacent to a lovely stream down a track that is used by the Kilfinnance Outdoor Pursuits centre so the farmer doesnt seem to mind people being in on his land.

This is marked as two cairns on the OS map and the hill itself is over 500m. There is a good track up to the cairns and I believe it is part of a Kilfinnane Outdoor Pursuits area.
The cairn itself isnt that impressive about 1.5m high and could be mistaken from a climbers cairn very easily.
No sign of a second cairn however there was something that may have been the remains of a cist near the cairn.
Great views of the Galtees and two peaks that if im correct are actually called Cnoc an Tairbh and Cnoc an Tairbh beg. Hill of the Bull!

No sign of this standing stone.

This stone is tricky to find, I walked right by it because its so close to the tree beside it. It is to the rear of the village of Herbertstown and you have to cross a small river to get to it.
The stone itself is about 0.4m high and seems to be highly polished in the top right hand corner or maybe there is a clunk of metal in it. Im not sure really.

Not marked on the OS map this standing stone is near the bridge in Rossadrehid. The stone itself is about 0.5m high.

Kilmogue is a fabulous portal tomb and should be on anyones list if they are in the South-East.
Access is easy although you will need a map to find the place because unless your very close there are no sign-posts. It really is surprising how big it is, much bigger than it looks in the pictures.
Also you really have to ask yourself why and how they got that capstone up there.

I was a bit disappointed by the site, it seems to only have one discernible ring around it. The hill itself is 242m high and has great views all around it. To the north you can see the shannon estuary. It is very near the village of Ardagh of the Ardagh chalice fame.
To climb it I just parked at the edge of the road and walked up thru the fields.
On looking at it I wouldnt think this hill-fort had any ceremonial function and I would think it was only for defence / keeping in the cattle.

Two standing stones are marked to the south of Kilfinnane. However both seem to be gone. The first one seems to have been where a new house was built and the other one is no longer there. May have been that the other one was gone before the house was built but I dont know.

There are two standing stones marked on the west side of the town of Kilfinnane. Neither seem to here anymore. Unusually enough on the opposite side of the road to them there is a standing stone, however its not marked on the OS Map and so could be a scratching post.

This standing stone is just on the south side of the small town of Kilfinnane behind the soccer pitch and beside a large motte.
The motte is actually more interesting than the standing stone in that it has two semi-circular ditches around it. Dont know if that is common on Mottes or not.

These are marked behind the cush barrows.
It is accessed via some tough terrain plus the site would be on the other side of a high barbed wire fence. The hill is covered in heather now and unless the stones are 300mm tall I can say with certainty that they are no longer here.

This standing stone is near the village of Caherdaniel, follow the signs for Derrynane House (Home of Daniel O’Connel). The standing stone itself must 2.2m high and there are two pieces of Ogham on it.

This really has to be one of the most beautiful locations for a stone circle ive ever been too. Plus the best thing is that it is off the beaten track and so if your lucky you can have this place all to yourself. Its in such an amazing landscape that this circle must have been some kind of nature temple.
Something I did notice was that the sound of the waterfall doesnt seem to be coming from the east where the falls were but to the southern bank of the lake.

This great stone row is located just to the south of the town of Waterville and is easily spotted from the road. The stones themselves are very tall maybe 3m high.
It seems to be forming the edge of a circular enclosure which im presuming was added on at a later date.

This stone circle is very tricky to find as it is located up a number of back-streets in the busy town of Kenmare. Maybe its just me but I hate asking for directions, all it needs is a few sign-posts from the main square.
Saying that we met 4 sets of tourist while we were there so it looks like people are finding this lovely stone circle despite the lack of help from Irish tourism.

This barrow is all that I could find of a barrow cemetery just on the eastern edge of the town of Hospital. There are seven other barrows marked however after a brief look the only one I could find was this giant.
This is another of the large barrows that are mentioned as part of the Discovery programme for this area.
This barrows outer diameter must be up around the 15-20m mark with two concentric rings and a small central mound. The mound and the diameter is a much smaller in size to Knockanny or Ballinascaula.
To find it park at the farm-gate just outside of the town of Hospital on the right. Follow the track that is shown on the map. When you come up to the disused farmyard that is shown at the end of the track you should be able to figure out where it is. Its lowlying and there are lot of rushes around it so can be difficult to spot.

This standing stone is maybe about 0.75m high. I marked at an entrance to a farm yard on the right leaving hospital. You can check the barrow out at Coolalough from here. I walked in thru the farmyard and over a ditch to take a picture of it. Nothing special really.

The last time I was up here they had removed the ditches around the mound and barrows.
This seems to reveal a fourth barrow to the three barrows that are marked in a line on the OS map.
Ive heard it said that you can see the Paps of Anu from up here but Ive never been able to make them out.
You can clearly see where the ditches have been removed from the variance in the grass colour.

This standing stone is on the sacred hill of Aine between the mound on the eastern side and the ringfort on its western side.
It is about 1.25m high.

A little cemetery not far from Knocklong. Not much to say about them really. there are 8 dots on the map I found 5 of them.

Limerick seems to be the county for unmarked standing stones. This one on a hill behind a old farm-house about 0.25km from the large barrow also in Ballinscaula.
Its about 0.75m high and although the day was cloudy you could make out Cnoc Aine to the north.

This is another huge barrow in Limerick similar to the one at Knockanny.
In fact the three rings or banks around it seem to be of a wider diameter to the ones in Rathanny but maybe the mound is slightly smaller. The barrow at Rathanny is only about 5km away from this one. The amount of work to construct these two mounds would have been huge. Reading the North Munster Project I believe there may be a few more of these in the area which along with Lough Gur only a few more kms to the north really points to a good size population here.
The outer ring diameter is huge could be 30m across and the height of the barrow / mound is about 5m high.
Similar to Knockanny this again is located in wetland area and when I visited the trenches between the rings were water-logged up to 400mm. Funnily enough there wasnt much variation in the depth and I didnt find myself walking into any holes and causing the water to go over my wellies. Obviously though be careful walking thru the water. You never know what kind of critters could be in stagnant water.
There is a track leading all the way to the barrow, its a good km from the road and leads past an old disused farmhouse.
There is also an unmarked standing stone on a hill behind the farmhouse as you walk in.

This is an unmarked standing stone to the west of the Barrow Cemetery. Its about 0.75m high and reminded me of “The surgeons photo” of Nessie! Its wafer thin so I couldnt see it being of any use as a scratching post for cows.
Its located just to the rear of a bungalow house.

For anyone that has visited Duntryleague and looked at the map and thought the barrow cemetery to the north must be amazing, well this is what remains of the cemetery. I found roughly about 7 barrows and the positions of approximately 5 others.
However saying that this is a reasonably interesting place. A lot of work has gone into draining the lands here and you wonder why anyone would have located a cemetery pre the drainage?
There is a very long avenue / bank to the east which to me doesnt serve any purpose in terms of drainage etc and I would suggest that maybe this bank signifies the limit of the cemetery.
Also to the north of the main field of the cemetery the ground undulates a lot and looks to me like it could be part of the cemetery.

A small standing stone about 500mm high just on the cork / limerick border. It seems to be looking towards the peak on Carrigeenamronety.