This damaged stone circle was very tricky to find. I even had the 8 digit grid reference number from the inventory and even with that it was difficult to find. There is a fine standing stone about 200m from it and that is easy to find. I tried making my way from the standing stone to the circle but ended up getting soaked in marshy land.
I went back out to the road where I had parked and tried from that side. I had almost given up when it my gps showed it was in the middle of some undergrowth but kept going and found the two portal stones of the circle. There were also about 3 other stones remaining.
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This stone circle is not far off the road south of Toon Bridge. When I visited it was fairly overgrown however you could make out that it was impressive circle and fairly intact. Jack Roberts mentions that it is aligned to 228° and to the winter solstice.
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This stone row is less than a km from the Carriganine stone circle. It is just to the side of a house in a field and is difficult to see from the road.
Its a lovely 3 stone alignment, the stones are about 1.2m high. The middle stone has an unusual depression in it, looks a bit like on the standing stone at the circle of Knocknakilla. To top it all off the row seems to be lining up with a hill off in the distance, Im not sure exactly which one but i think it could be Douce Mountain.
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This is right beside the road a little south from Macroom. There are two stones remaining however the remains of three more may be in the ditch behind them. The two remaining stones look out to the hills in the distance.
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This stone circle is a couple of miles from Macroom to the north side of the River Lee reservior out on a bit of a penisula. I recall parking at an old churchyard and walking west for about 400m. Then heading through a few fields linking up with a farmtrack which it is right beside.
Unfortunately it was fairly overgrown with high grass and the resulting pictures werent great. According to Jack Roberts the orientation of the circle is 200°.
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For some strange reason this wedge tomb is listed on the old Michelin maps, up there with the likes of Newgrange and the Rock of Cashel.
The tomb is in the vicinity of the beautiful Gougane Barra lake (my brother in law got married at the church here so I nipped out to take some pics the night before the wedding).
It is a place that is well worth a visit for non megalithic reasons. The lake was an early christain hermitage spot (a bit like Glendalough) and I understand there are legends of the lake having a monster in it.
Regarding the wedge tomb, there are two shown on the map but I only could find one. I think the second one might be destroyed as I found the remains of what might have been.
Its a fine big tomb and is in good condition. Didnt have much time to study it but i think it is about 4m long by about 2m wide.
http://www.gouganebarra.com/
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I had wondered about maybe trying to get over to this one from the other stone circle however from the terrain it looked very difficult and so I drove up the forestry road to within about 300m of it. I had the coordinates in my handheld gps and even with the 8 digits coordinates I still nearly didnt find this. I just couldnt fathom that the stone circle would be in the evergreen trees.
See Gordons pictures for great directions on how to find this site, I shall have to start following them soon!
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This circle is at the end of a long lane. There is a sign-post to the circle so that is always a good sign regarding access as you have to walk practically through the yard of a farm to get onto the lane. Its a long walk down, maybe 1.5km but the lane is in good condition and the site itself is well worth the walk.
The circle itself is in great condition and I assume all the stones are there and in there original positions. It is noted on Jack Roberts map as having an orientation to the Feb / Nov Cross Quarter days.
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These standing stones are marked as a stone row and a single standing stone on the OS map on the lane down to the Carrigagulla stone circle. It seems likely that they made up the one monument at some stage. From Tom Fourwinds site he spoke to the farmer while visiting and the farmer said "that he can remember three standing in the field when he was young, but they fell. One of the gate post stones was dug up by him a few years ago some distance from the others. Was it once a very long row of five or six stones?"
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As you can probably guess from the pictures the forestry around the stone row has been cut down and you can now see what remains of the row after the damage the planting has done. Im not sure what material the stones are but there do appear to be naturally white and would have been very impressive I would say when originally upright.
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The main pointer to this stone circle is the huge standing stone at Maulmore. The stone circle is only about 400m from it. There is what looks perhaps like the remains of a tomb or a cairn in the same field as it.
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Not sure what they were playing at digging up this field with a hymac but the field and the stone were both in good condition when I visited this summer.
This is a massive stone (as they say probably 4m high) and what is even stranger is that it isnt marked on the OS map that I own. The texture of the stone has a lovely colour and shade to it.
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This standing stone is about 300 m from the stone circle. My memory fails me on the height but I think it was about 1.5m high.
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Rylane is just off the road about 1.5km from Rylane village. You don't see it as you pass by but you should be able to see the nearby standing stone. Find the standing stone and the stone circle is just over the ditch to the west.
The circle is given as having a orientation of 220° and is also noted as having a possible winter solstice orientation.
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I tried visit this circle and the other to the NE, both to no avail Im afraid. This one in particular looks amazing from the ground plan however it has been swallowed up in the undergrowth. This would definitely be a circle that you would love to purchase and restore to its former glory. However by the looks of the warning signs it does not appear as if the local farmer has much interest in it other than keeping people away from it.
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I have to agree with everyone below, parking here really is a pain. That along with the fact that it is down as a standing stone on my old version of the OS map makes this a tricky site to get to. I drove up and down this road a number of times before eventually parking a little up from the T-junction at about the only gateway that doesnt cause you to block what is a narrow road.
Its a fantastic site, unfortunately the electric fence does take away from it. The day I visited there were a number of curious cows / bullocks in the field right up to it and as such you didnt feel like staying around for too long.
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I understand that these two bullauns were only rediscovered in the last 10 years. They aren't in the Archaeological (hard copy) or the updated version on www.archaeology.ie.
This stones are close to the fields were I grew up and used to play in so its amazing that they weren't known of in the locality. The day I checked them out they were full of cow poo, so this enough of this in them and they would be hard to identify.
A section of the newly upgraded Lough Derg Way passes by the stones so taking this track is probably the easiest way to view them and also a great walk with proper walking stiles and no cows to worry about.
The stones are both earthfast and approx 200 yards from the path.
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I first spotted this bullaun stone when a niece (on my wives side) got christained here and had meant to get back to photograph it. It seems from the record below that it was moved from somewhere else
From www.archaeology.ie;
Description: Located in the grounds of the R.C. church in the village of Kilbarron (Newchapel), the bullaun stone is situated to the E of the church. A small granite boulder (dims. 0.7m x 0.7m x 0.3m) with a deep circular depression (diam. 0.3m; D 0.2m) that was originally found in a field beside an old building that was locally believed to have been a possible church. This building is depicted as a large T-shaped building on the first edition OS six-inch map. There is a cattle crush located now where this building was originally situated, with no evidence remaining of this large T-shaped building. This building was located in the adjoining townland of Carrigagown North. A second bullaun stone (TN009-066) was discovered at the site and was moved to the grounds of a private house in Skehanagh.
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This site is mentioned in Geraldine Stouts book on Ely O'Carroll County.
I followed the nearby stream down to it, this is really is horse country and as I was halfways into the field it was in, two horses appeared and chased my dog Ned into the river, he barely escaped there hooves. Im sure they were just playing but this does high-light the dangers of the countryside and bringing a dog with you.
This is a monument that I hoped may show some kind of alignment with the "Devils Bit", unfortunately it really doesnt.
Ive just discovered that www.archaeology.ie now provides descriptions so as per the website please find the following;
Description: Situated on flat pasture in an upland area with nearby river to SW. A large triangular-shaped conglomerate boulder (L 1.4m; T 0.9m) resting on three small support-stones with two front pad-stones to the SE and a single backstone to the NW. A large boulder immediately W of the burial probably represents natural rock outcrop or field clearance and does not appear to be associated with the site. According to local tradition the site was known as a 'giant's grave' (Stout 1984, 17).
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The Ballyhoura Project mentions this as being a radial cairn. I tried to visit this before heading up to Knocknafalia but the pursuit was unsuccessful. The summit of the hill is covered in prickly scrub and there was no sign of any radial cairn up there.
We got up as far as the trig point and then headed east but after about 200m we couldnt get any further.
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Megalithic explorer from Co. Tipperary in Ireland. Travelling Munster in search of adventures.
Contact me at [email protected] or [email protected]
Please email me if you wish to use any of my pictures. They are not copyright free.
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