bawn79

This cairn is only a few miles from Cairn and access to it is pretty good. Its about 2 fields in from the road.
When I first saw it from about a field back I couldnt believe its size. I actually thought it was a ring-fort and I was imagining this big pile of stones. The main reason I was surprised at its size was due to it being in the middle of farm-land I presumed it would have been cleared or used for road-building by now.
It must be about 4m high and the diameter must be about 20-25m. As above it is in great condition and I would say that nothing has been removed from it. To the east there is a slight depression on top of the cairn which may point to where a chamber has fallen in.
Another interesting feature is the ‘alignment’ with Galtymore / Galtybeg which seem to form a pair of breasts at this point. Either that or a psychotherpist would have a field-day with me!

This is a real tough climb up at 418m high. The cairn itself is actually now in an island of trees with only one very thin sliver of a free break to get into it. So you could be walking all over the place if you dont approach from the correct side. I came up from the side where the track is shown on the map and then broke off as the track went into the forestry.
This cairn had been on my list for a long time having made at least four previous attempts to climb it.
The cairn itself is low and I would say it has been rebuilt. However I would say it may originally have been a Cist or something like that.
Views are magnificant up here and you see way over limerick down on to CnocGreine and beyond.

This is a lovely monument, a boulder burial. There are four burials, the biggest boulder being about 1 metre high. The boulders themselves are all snarled and have a lot of character. I believe there was a stone circle on the hill next to this Reardnogy Beg that has since been destroyed.
The burial seems to be lined up towards the spur of the Mahur Slieve where the sun rises on Summer Solstice morning.
Best to just pick a gate at the fields on the road for access. There were a few bullocks in the field the time I went to look at it.

This standing stone is about a half km north of the passage tomb at Knockroe.
It is beside the bank of a stream. It is about 2m high, maybe 200mm in width.

2008
I only had time to drop down to Knockroe once this year, for sunset on the 20th and I was almost rewarded for the journey. On an otherwise pretty cloudy day an area of cloudless sky was holding out where the sun was beginning to set.
I couldnt believe my luck as the rays of the sun began to fill the back of the chamber at Knockroe.
Unfortunately just as it was making its way into what would be perfect alignment (above the trees to the right of the farm buildings on the horizon according to the people assembled) a cloud came in to block it off.
What I did see certainly was worth the effort as it was a fabulous sight seeing the sun against the back stone lighing up some of the rock-art.
Hopefully for next year the chamber stone that is beginning to fall inwards will have been fixed as this seems to effect where the sun shines on the backstone causing a shadowing effect. I most certainly come back to see this again next year.

2007
I dropped down to Knockroe for the winter solstice for 2 days running. However there was no sign of the sun for sunrise or sunset. On the 20th it was very quiet with very few around. I think there was maybe 2 in the morning and 3 or 4 in the evening. On the 21st it was much busier, maybe 10 in the morning and about 30 in the evening.
First 3 times it was nice but i think for the last sunset even if the sun had shone right you probably wouldnt have got much of an effect with so many people around.
The place still is in bad condition, some of the people down there reckon the sunset alignment isnt working as well because someone took away a support that kept the width of some of the stones set. So this is very disappointing.

One guy that had been down said that out of 7 years being there he had only seen the sunrise alignment twice. So that is the odds you have really. I think this year it worked pretty good at sunset on the 19th. I was on the way over to it but decided to go shopping in Clonmel instead!

As I said as well they now think that nearby Bawnfree Hill is aligned to the winter solstice sunset too. Im not too sure myself though.

This is an odd stone, its marked as a bullaun stone but really I cant see how it could be.
There are possibly three very faint depression on its surface as I have marked with the red circles. However today I poured some water in them but it didnt settle and just ran straight off.
However the fact that this rock was left in the corner of the field and never removed must mean something?

Update:
I read recently that the bullaun stone has been removed. This stone is thought to be prehistoric however. I have no idea what kind of monument it was part of.

This is a very strange almost rectangular bullaun stone. It is located on a river bed about 1/2 km from the village of Ballypatrick.
Other than the name Ballypatrick there is no evidence on the map of an old church in the area.
This and the strange shape of the bowl make this a very unusual site.