bawn79

This site is close to Friarstown hill. However there is no sign of a stone here. There is a blackthorn thicket in the spot where the stone should be but it clearly isnt in the thicket.

This standing stone is about 1.5m high by about 1.5m wide. It may be white-washed though I wasnt sure. It it can actually be seen from the road although it is about 1km in from where I parked. There is a spot on the road where it is only about 300m in but parking is very dangerous here.
The standing stone itself is on a hill with about five ring-forts marked on the map. Two I could clearly see on the day. I read in a book by a guy called Tom O’Connor that this was the capital of Munster at one stage and called Teamhair Luachra.
I dont know how trustworthy the reference is though.

This standing stone is no longer here.
It would have stood about 2km to the south of Cnoc Greine.
I spoke to a local man who said that it was toppled because people thought it could have fallen on people or animals! It was then broken up and removed.
It seems to have happened within living memory. I should have asked some more questions of him at the time.

This cairn is at 726m and on the peak of Monavullagh mountain. The cairn itself has been artifically modified into a shelter for climbers and to be honest with the weather that we had on the day it was a welcome relief.
Again there is evidence of a kist in the bottom of it. The cairn itself must be about 7m in diameter.
Interestingly enough it is rock outcrop that can be viewed from ground level.

This cairn is the next marker on the trail up the slope of Monavullagh Mt. It is a low cairn with evidence of a kist in its centre with fabulous views both North and South. Interestingly enough the cairn on top of Poul-na-maddra-ruadh can not be viewed from here.

This is a lovely standing stone on the slope of Monavullagh. It is about 2m high and about 0.5m wide. One side of it appears to have been painted/ whitewashed. To the north in the heather there are three more large slabs that Fourwinds discovered and look like they may also once have been standing before.

I cant confirm 100% that this standing stone is gone but im 95% sure. I had a good root around looking for it and its location according to GPS is between a ringfort that is completely overgrown or a gravel / sandpit that has been opened for the restoration works on Aherlow Castle. There is a new road into the castle which isnt shown on the map.

This is a nice little standing stone to the north of the Galtees and on the slopes of the Glen of Aherlow.
The stone itself is about 1.25m high and has lovely views to the hills in the south. Perhaps it was some kind of marker to the various notches in the Galtees but nothing really stood out to me.
It is about 3-4 fields from the road and the way I went in was pretty mucky.
On an aside, two lovely terrier dogs followed me the whole way to stone on a little adventure for them. They were so covered in mud I cant have seen their owner been very happy with them when they returned!

This embanked circle is very unusual. The outer ring is probably bigger than the Grange Lios and it also has a smaller inner circle.
The whole site is in a bad state and its very hard to photograph because its so overgrown.
It is marked as a mound on the OS map for some reason. It is marked on the information board at Lough Gur as a stone circle and also in O’Kellys works.

Daveyravey below appears to have been to it as well but I think the grid ref and the name he has given it is incorrect.
themodernantiquarian.com/site/8321/lough_gur_d.html

This is a really impressive site. I remember reading about it in the Discovery Programmes North Munster Project (I had a loan of it for a few days). I believe it is classified as a Bronze Age Barrow.
I would like to give the exact dims because it is huge and really the pictures don’t do it justice.
There are three rings around it as far as I could see. The inner one being about 1.5m high and the ditch in between is filled with water.
What really excited me was the views from it. To the east you have the many notches of the Galtys, south the Ballyhouras but even more importantly to the North you can clearly see the fairy mound of Cnoc Aine.
I think this mound/ barrow may be in some way related to the many monuments in the area.
The word rathanny is meant to come from Rath-eanaighe or the fort of the marsh. However I wonder is there any link to RathAine? With Anny being a corruption of this?
As for how to find it, I parked at the soccer field beside Hospital and walked thru the fields. It is about 1km from the soccer field.
There may be a track thru a farm but you will have to ask for permission etc. Basically you will need a GPS and to be honest I wouldnt fancy going down here in wet weather. I think it would live up to Rath of the marshes!

This standing stone is about 1m tall. However it has fallen. By the looks of it pretty recently

This stone is not marked on the OS map. It is about 500mm high. It could possibly be a scratching post. However with the quantity of monuments in the area I doubt it.

The graveyard on the left coming out of Lattin is located up on a height above the road.
On closer inspection it is obvious it is built into some kind of mound. Again I’m not sure of its age.

This mound is on the right as you come into Lattin on the R515. It is a quite huge mound. Must be at least 5m high. I’m not sure of its date, it may be a Motte but it is listed in the OS Map as a mound.

About 200m from the mound nearby. This is a tall standing stone of about 2m high.
Unusually for its size it is not marked on the OS map.

Drove past here recently on the way to check out St. Ailbes well in Emly.
I had to do a double take when I didnt see the familiar sight of the standing stone.
On the way back I investigated it and it looks as though it has been hit by lightening and broken up.
The stone itself was charred where it split. I was glad to have seen it when it was still standing.

This mound is located just off the R515 before the village of Lattin. It isn’t marked on the OS map however it is right beside an unmarked Standing Stone about 200m to the west. The mound itself must be about 2-3m high in parts and about 15m in diameter. It is more long than round.

Well this piece of Rock-art can now be found in UCC in Cork as part of an exhibition of Rock-art and Ogham.
It was orginally found in Mothel in Waterford and according to Fourwinds is the only piece of Rock-art found in the county.

There is a confusing amount of ditchs and defences up here on Knocksefin. There is clearly the remains of part of the Hill-fort however the rest of them dont really fit into any form of monument I know and may be domestic or perhaps of a latter date, Cromwellian perhaps?

This Barrow is about 32m radius. Half of it is actually destroyed so only a semi-circle remains.
Again this does not appear on the OS map for the area.

This is marked on the map right across from a school close to the Morning Star River in the town of Bruff. It is given a circular mark on the map however looking at it on site I think there is a chance it is in fact a barrow of some kind.
Its located within a nice park beside the river and is about 1.75m high.

This standing stone isnt on the OS map. Again another example of the huge amount of stuff in Limerick that isnt on the map. It is located with great views to the south close to the slopes of Cnoc Firinne. It is located close to a glad of natural wood-land possibly part of an abbey.

This is very clearly a pretty impressive barrow, however for some reason it doesnt appear on the OS Map.

I was surprised to see this monument and at first I thought this was the hill-fort marked on the map.
However it appears to be some kind of three banked mound. Perhaps a ring-fort or a barrow.
It reminds me of the Tlachtga on the Hill of Ward in Meath.
So perhaps it may have had some kind of ceremonial function?

This Hut Circle is made up of maybe 8-10 stones most of them no more than 200-300mm high.

This is actually a hut circle not a stone circle. My mistake. It is called a stone circle on the information board at Lough Gur.

This fort is marked on the information board as you come into Lough Gur. What is interesting at this time of year is the circular patterns of growth within the Lough itself.
Obviously as one corner of the lake has been reclaimed/ filled in then it is likely that the overall level of the lake has risen. Perhaps there are more sites underwater.
Much of the folklore of the area speaks of an enchanted city beneath its waters.

This is a beautiful standing stone to the north of Knockfennel. It is on private land.
It is not shown on the OS Map for some reason (very unusual, I think the OS map for Limerick is missing a lot of stuff) however it is in the Discovery Programme book for the region.
It is about 1.75m high and seems to be carved at the tip into a semi-circular top.
To get there use the pathway that goes up Knockfennel and branch off along the lower northern ridges of it.
It is less than 0.5km from the main path.

Cnoc Greine is the third fairy hill of North Munster linking in with Cnoc Firinne to the east and Cnoc Aine to the south west. Im curious how and why these particular hills along with Lough Gur/ Knockadoon became so important and what being a fairy hill signifies?
It is just off the main road between Pallas Green and Oola on the Limerick – Tipperary Road. Pallas Green comes from the Irish for Sun.
I have heard that a Cork Historical Society Journel from the 1880s makes reference to the fact there was a “temple of the sun” on its summit. I have not walked the hill yet but the OS map indicates that there are two ringforts/circular enclosures on it.
Perhaps the structure was wooden similar to Dun Ailline in Kildare?

The views up here are amazing. I would suspect that this may have been some kind of passage-grave at one stage. The view to the setting sun is fantastic over some low hills in cork and to the east is the sea around youghal.
I would think that the rising sun coming up out of the sea here would have been amazing. So if there was a passage perhaps it was aligned to a sun-rise. All just conjecture of course.
Also this cairn has great views into the mountains of Tipp/Waterford to the north.

This stone row has 2 large stones and 1 smaller stump. The highest is about 1.25m high. Unusually the axis of the row is aligned north-south.
It is easy to get to from the road. It is down a quiet cul-de-sac. I parked opposite a new stone house and then walked thru two fields to get to it.
Some of the foresty plantation have been cut recently and open some views to the west but nothing too significant.

This standing stone is pretty mathom about 2.2m high by about 1.5m wide.
It is set with great views of the Tipp/Waterford Hills. It looks like a fairly average stone but the edge or narrowest side looking towards the hills is all gnarled and interesting looking.
It is just behind a new house at the edge of a foresty plantation and access to it is easy.

No sign of this standing stone on Slievecorran. There is a huge slab of granite lying in the corner of one of the fields near where it should be, prehaps that is it?

No sign of this standing stone. Used GPS but still could find nothing.
There is a stone about 300mm high in a ditch but it doesnt look significant enough to me.

No sign of these standing stones, the field they should be in is now ploughed and there are a few stones in the ditch that may be field clearance or at least one of them look like they could an original stone.

This Ogham stone is meant to be down a cul-de-sac, no sign of it at the grid ref.

This standing stone is meant to be in behind some houses. As far as I could see its gone.

Finally made it up to see the “Rolling Sun” at Boheh Stone. It is a very interesting expierence. Talking to a local lady that had seen it everytime in the last 36 years she said that this instance was the brightest she can remember. I would recommend bringing some kind of tinted “welders” goggles with you so that you can observe it better. I think I am still seeing sun-spots after it.
The stone is on the Clew Bay Arch trail as Site 2 and can be found by following the signs for Croagh Patrick coming out of Westport and then following the sign for Site 2.
There is a lot of construction going on close to the stone (which is in someones backyard but access is allowed!) and another spot where it is possible to view the “rolling sun” from the road will be gone as another bungalow is built up in front of it.
It happens twice a year on the 18th April and August 24th. However the locals that were there last night agreed that today the 19th April would probably be better so it looks as if it could be slightly either side of this.

I can see this cairn from my house in Cahir, originally I thought it was the cairn on Sturrakeen. However it is on Slieveanard, its funny the cairns that are marked on Greenane West and Sturrakeen dont look like cairns at all while this one definitely is a cairn but isnt marked.
The cairn itself is about 2m high by about 15m diameter. There is a fantastic view from it back along the spine of the Galtees. It is a relatively easy climb up. I followed the path marked on the OS map that takes you up to the lower of the two peaks and then walked from there over to the higher one.
The cairn on the higher peak isnt visible from the lower.

The first photo is looking south and then the second photo is where the tomb turns almost to a 45 degree angle.
This can be seen from Fourwinds postcard in the misc section.

On the OS Map there is a cairn marked between the summits of Greenane and Greenane West. I made the difficult climb up to 800m and 5km from the road using the path that is shown on the OS map that stops short of the summit.
When I got up there I couldnt find anything that resembled a cairn the only thing up there is “O’Loughlins Castle” which I’ve added a photo of. I’ve been meaning to check out the old OS notes for South Tipp in the Local Studies area of Thurles library.
I’ll see if this cairn has been destroyed or what it referred to.

This mound is in the grounds of an old gentry house in the village of Ballynacorra just outside midleton.
It must be about 6m high by about a diameter of 15m.
Its hard to know exactly what it is without further reseach.
For being ancient: it is very close to an early Church site and is not marked as a motte or such. On the against side: it is in the grounds of a gentry house and could possibly be a folly.
To back this up is the path leading to the top and the chair on top.

Im not really convinced about this being a cairn but it is marked as such. It seems to me to be a rock formation with possibly some cairn material piled up against it but I’m pretty dubious. Would be interesting to see the OS notes attached to this one.
Perhaps the cairn has been removed but I dont see who would go to the bother. Use moutainviews.ie for directions up.

I climbed up from the road, best to use mountainviews.ie for directions. The cairn isnt that obvious from the surrounding hill side when you are right beside it however it can be seen from far away. The north side of the cairn really isnt cairn like at all and it seems to be the east-south-west sides that are cairn like.
If it is a proper cairn then it is pretty huge, i couldnt really estimate because the north side flattens off.
You can see for miles up here and to a number of different hill-tops, some have cairns that are marked on the map, others that dont but have cairn-like features on top.

This stone row was tricky enough to find in the middle of a pine plantation which thankfully is cut down at the moment. It is just off the road and probably best found with an OS Map.
The row itself is fenced off but a tree has kinda fallen in front of it and so its hard to spot coming in from the road. The stones are all between 1-1.5m high and the row seems to be orientated north-east, south-west.

This stone near the small village of bartlemy in a field with horses in it. There is a nearby (1km) holy well dedicated to the St Bartholomew’s. Im not sure what cures he is associated with.
It is about 1m high and looks out to the mountains to the north.

This standing stone is about 1.5m high and tilted to one side. It is about 0.5km away from the roadside behind a farm, I visited it by walking along the side of a field that had been freshly ploughed and then thru another two fields. The farmer seems to keep horses so watch out for that. There is a fulacht fia which I didnt visit about 400m away.

The OS map has changed a good bit with the new house in the first picture destroying the lane that appears to run up close to it. The barrow itself is about 300mm high by a diameter of maybe 10-15m. There a few stones protruding from it, may be field clearance.
More than likely I would say the barrow is looking along the false horzon to the north-east where the hills are, may be part of the Knockmealdowns, will have to check.

The fallen stone is just by the roadside near to the village of ballinacurra. The two stones are described as “standing stones” but are not within sight of each other as a ditch separates the two.
The taller stone is a fine stone about 2.2m high by about a 1m across and commands some good views. The other stone has fallen and is close to a ditch which doesnt allow any views from it. Both are in rolling countryside.

This can be found near the village of Ballinacurra which is close to Midleton in Cork. Basically use the OS map to get close to it. I found it without a GPS using the clump of trees show near it on the map. It is behind a farm-house and access is reasonable. If anyone is about it is worth asking for permission.
The height of the tomb is approx 1m-1.5m high, length about 4m.
To the south is a possible barrow or maybe the remains of a ring-fort and there is also a standing stone to the south-west.
There is also a funny looking mound to the west of it, however that could be natural but looks slightly out of place to me in the locality.

The cairn on Sheegouna is to the north-east of Slievenamon and at a height of about 550m meaning from Slievenamon you have to climb down to it.
Jim O’Connor in the link on the folklore calls it “The fairy-fort of the magic cow”. He also mentions that there was another cairn on Knockahunna to the north. There is no mention of a passage-grave but this cairn to me seemed to be the more likely of the two to have one.
To the south of the cairn is a rock shelter which may be a megalithic tomb, its not recorded, have a look at the pictures and let me know what you think.
The cairn is smaller than the cairn on Slievenamon so about 2m high by 20m diameter.

The cairn on top of Slievenamon or Mountain of the Woman is at a height of 721m. It is a good walk and there is a path all the way up to the cairn which makes access easy.
Coming from Dublin on the Cashel by-pass N8 take the sign for Fethard then the Kilsheelan road and follow the signs for Ballypatrick and Kilcash. There are signs for the walk in Kilcash.
It takes about an hour to climb up to it.
The cairn itself isnt as impressive as I hoped and the day I climbed it was pretty hazy so couldnt get an idea as to any significant features on the landscape around it. It is mentioned in the link I have that it is thought to be a passage grave, to me it didnt seem big enough but I would love to be proven wrong!. I would think it is approx 3-4m high by maybe a diameter of 20-25m.