bawn79

This would be a nice site to take in on a journey to Galway. It is just south of the town of Loughrea and there seems to be public access to the site.
It seems to be a cross between a barrow or mound and a stone circle.

Tricky to see some of the remains at ground level but Westropp gives what I think sounds like a bit of a far fetched account of Clogher Hill and its surrounding assembly area / barrow cemetery.
There are barrows marked on the OS map however they are not that large and would require a complete fieldwalk of the area to record them all.
Here is Westropps account of the Clogher Hill assembly area below, it is very confusing.

Oenach Culi Mna Nechtain or Clochair – The traveller who passes from Dublin to Cork, if he watches the beautiful changing views of the great Galtees and the Ballyhoura mountains in southern County Limerick, can also see two salient points of the the legendary battlefield of the High King, Cormac Mac Airt, and Fiacha Muillethan, King of Thomond. The long ridge, with the rugged peel tower of the O’Hurleys, near Knocklong Station and the great beech-clad mound of Aghadoon, on a slope beside the Morning Star River, the ancient Saimer, once an imposing river, now a small and shrunken stream. The ridge is the “Druim Damhgaire” (oxen ridge) and the mote the “Raithin an Imaraigh” where the opposing druids fought, with all the “high explosives of up-to-date magic”.

Driving from Knocklong, not by the direct road, to the south east but by the road south of the ridge to the “Cross of the Tree” we pass, on the edge of a plateau, a little green tumulus, called Clogherbeg Mote. The name, with that of Clogher Hill, is all that the chief cemetery and assembly of the Dergthene, the tribe sprung from “Nia Segamain of the Siabra” or god race, from the great gods Lug Long Hand and Nuada Silver Hand, afterwards froming the branch (so famous in Irish history) of the Eoghanacht of Cashel and the Dal Cais, the tribes ruled by Brian Boroimhe.

May I be so far personal as to take my own case as an illustration of the merits of field survey? I was absolutely in ignorance when I recorded the remains at Slieveragh and Clogherbeg that I had at last found the Temair Erann, and was about to identify independently Oenach Culi. Mr P.J. Lynch had placed the latter correctly at Clogherbeg, but only on literary grounds, for he gave no note of the remains, and I had not recalled his brief paragraph. I unfortunately held (with O’Donovan, like Mr Orpen and Father Hogan) that Oenach Culi was at Monasteranenagh. The remains clearly marked a spot of the first importance; if so, what was this Clogher Hill and Clogherbeg? The ridge of Knockainey lies away to the north, the blue Galtees and purple Slievereagh to the south, in full view of Clogher Hill. The Mesca Ulad tells how Cu Chulaind, after he had gone up Knockainey to look round and identify the landmarks, led the Ulstermen southward, toward Cenn Febrat, coming to the Oenach Sen Clochair. The Agallamh tells how St Patrick coming from Cullen to Ardpatrick “skirted the Oenach of Nechtan’s wife Cuil, not called the heifer-carrying Oenach Sen Clochair, past Cenn Febrat of Sliabh Caoin. These two lines as described cross each other at Clogherbeg. The charter of Prince John to Monasteranenagh Abbey, in about 1186, places Enaculi at Corbali, and the townland of Corbally adjoins the townlands in which the earthworks remain. Few ancient sites are better
identified.

Now the Senchas na Relec tells us in its account of “the chief cemeteries of Erin before the Faith” that Temair Erann was where “the Clann Deda – ie the race of Conaire and the Ernai (buried), at Temair Erann; the men of Mumhan i.e, the Derghene at Oenach Chuli and Oenach Colmain”. Every outstanding name of note (hero or heroine, save Curoi, who was buried on Slieve Mish) appears in the list of graves on Cenn Febrat in MacCraith’s poem (circa A.D. 900-1014). The question arises what princes of the Dergthene lay at Oenach Culi?

Legends give the following as buried elsewhere – Mog Neid, in a sod grave on Magh Tualaing in Ely O’Carroll, King’s County, Eogan Mog Nuadat and his brother in law under two tumulit at Oeanach Colmain Elo (wherever it tlay) perhaps near Tullamore, in the same county, near Magh Leana. Oilioll Aulom was buried on the summit of Claire (on Slievereagh, probably in the curved wall, above his fort of Dun Claire), his seven sons near Magh Mucrimhe and Cormac Cass, in Duntryileague. Then we have no further account, so perhaps Oenach Culi was founded, or adopted, about A.D. 250 by Fiacha Muillethan. There, possibly, the Dal Cais princes, Mog Corb, Fer Corb, Aengus Tireach, Lugaid Meann, and Connel Eachluath, are laid, but there is not even legend. It has been asserted on the cited authority of the Dind Senchas that Lugaid was buried under a cairn a Ludden, further north, but (when we verify the statement) he made the cairn there to keep a tally of his men before his invasion of the present County Clare. His ordinary residence is there said to have been on Magh Femen.

Turning down from the “Cross of the Tree” towards Ballylanders to Galbally, we cross a stream and find a number of curious earthworks to the west of the road in the townland of Raheenamadra, on to the border of Mitchellstown-Down, Raheenamaddra, is a platform fort, a low mote, such as abound in this district; we have, at least fifteen, Rathbane or Bulgadin, Ligadoon, Aghadoon, Atheneasy, four in Knocklong, three in Cushand Ballinvreena at the foot of Slievereagh, Glenbrochain or Ballingarry Down; Rahanna and Raheenamaddra; “the dog’s little fort.“. Their number precludes the idea that they are inauguration mounds, or feudal castles, and scattered across such an extent they clearly belong to no one cemetery, they are most probably residential, and Glenbroghaun Mote, at the foot of Sliab Claire is more than probably the Rath of Broccan near Claire in the Tripartite Life.

In the first field on the S. E. plateau we find a long hollow, running N. and S., probably the boundary of the Oenach, the track of an old road runs E. and W. beside a low platform, hardly a yard high, with a shallow fosse, 6 feet to 9 feet wide, round it. The eastern angles are rounded, and it measures about 63 feet by 93 feet.
Another double track runs to two shallow hollows, evidently like the ponds at Tailltiu, a low mound stands between them. Another hollow way runs from them at right angles and toward the S.W. We cross the valley and stream in that direction, and climb the farther slope to the summit of the S.W. plateau called Knockaunataffiff, “the Bull’s mount” which commands a beautiful view of the mountain. It is quite possible that it is a casual name, like “Stagpark” and “Bullpark” elsewhere, but when we consider the it is the principal height of this great Oenach, and the connection of supernatural animals with such sites, the name is worth reflection. The “Prison of (the holy horse) Liath Macha” remained in the Brugh and the fort of it and its companion steed, Dub Sainglenn at Raith na h echraide, lay between Dundalk and the sea. There was a horse oracle at Dunbin, W. from Dundalk, and weird creatures, the Luchduin, perhaps a giant fox, wolf, or even mouse the many-legged carapaced Mata and not a few others as we noted.

We passed a terrace, possibly natural, and find on the summit twin tumuli suggesting “the two breasts of the Morrigu” at Brugh – is it too daring to fancy these may have been called “the two breasts of Cuil, Nechtan’s wife”? Being on a slope, they are from 10 feet to 13 feet higt to the eastm and 5 feet to 6 feet high to the west. A fence has been made between them, and the northern is in the long “screen” or plantation on the border of Mitchellstown Down. The southern mound is best preserved, a very shallow fosse delimits its base, and it rises in three stages, 5 feet, 5 feet, and 3 feet, in all 13 feet high, to the S., 10 feet to the N. end. The whole work is about 90 feet long, the summits were flat, 13 feet and 15 feet across. These command a view northward to Clogherbeg Mote. To the S.E, near the summit of the rise, is a small platform, 5 feet high, 6 feet across, with a fosse 12 feet wide, and a trace of an outer ring to the S.E. The long slope northward forms a natural amphitheatre commanding a view of any ceremonies performed at the conjoined mounds. A large shallow pond liews at the foot whence traces of two old roads run eastward. The conjoined mounds are very characteristic. They are 4 feet to 5 1/2 fett high, somewhat D-shaped, about 61 feet by 30 feet, and 78 feet by 81 feet, the first dimension being east and west. The western was walled with a drystone revetment of large slabs. It is not improbable that the mounds were dedicated to Nechtan and Cuil. The fosse is nearly obliterated in many parts; it is 9 feet wide, and had an outer ring, 6 feet thick, to the south of which the old road runs. About 200 feet awat is another circular platform of the same height, about 81 feet to 88 feet across, with a fosse. At 56 feet to the S.W. is a regular shallow, oval hollow, 3 feet feep and 18 feet to 25 feet across. Near it is a great block of stone, 3 feet 8 inches by 3 feet by 3 feet 6 inches. Another nearly buried block is to the N.E of the conjoined works.

Ogham Stone

This Ogham Stone was seemingly found on Knockfierna in 1837.
homepage.eircom.net/~asduchasdochas/homeweb2/map/info/knockfierna.html
Im not sure how it found its way to Ballingarry house.
The stone is in a paddock just to the left of a newer bungalow house.
The day I viewed there was no one to ask permission of. However i would recommend asking because access its obtained via the main drive into the house.

The stone itself has an unusual texture on one side. Its is about 1.75 metres tall.

The is mention of it in
Westropp, T.J. 1907. The “Knockfierna” ogham stone, County Limerick. J. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ireland 37, 242–245.

I have not read this article, if anyone has could they please let me know what it says.

This is a conjoined Rath or ringfort. Unusually there is a stream running through the middle of the two ringforts.
To the east are the remains of a cairn with a cist.

RSAI 1919 – The Ancient Places of Assembly in the Counties Limerick and Clare

“The conjoined rings of Baunteen, with a cairn near them, lying below the great “Harps” formed by coombs and parallel watercourses on the flanks of the Galtees, the ancient Crotta Cliach, may be connected with the divine harper, Cliu, who played on two harps and gave the mountain its name. The cairn had a cist.”

The OS map clearly shows a cairn at this site.
However there is no sign of remains of it at ground level. Westropp below states that the cairn had a cist in it.

To the west is a conjoined Rath or ringfort. Unusually there is a stream running through the middle of the two ringforts.

RSAI 1919 – The Ancient Places of Assembly in the Counties Limerick and Clare

“The conjoined rings of Baunteen, with a cairn near them, lying below the great “Harps” formed by coombs and parallel watercourses on the flanks of the Galtees, the ancient Crotta Cliach, may be connected with the divine harper, Cliu, who played on two harps and gave the mountain its name. The cairn had a cist.”

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.