A wonderful site. Two boulder burials, about 65m apart, with magnificent views to Corran and Carrigfadda. The pyramidal shape of the eastern boulder – 2.5m*1.4m*1.35m, according to the Archaeological Inventory – mirrors the shape of the latter.
Permission to visit may be obtained from the farm on the other side of the road.
Large – 2.3m * 2.1m * 1.2m according to the Archaeological Inventory – with long views to the north and west. Four support stones, although only two and a scattering of field debris were immediately apparent.
Permission to visit may be obtained from the nearby farm.
Visible from the farm track and 82m southwest of the stone group, is a protruding rock, flat-faced on its northeastern side. Careful study of the larger, left-hand segment of this striated panel reveals an almost perfect semicircle of cup-shaped depressions, none wider than a stout fingertip. Close to the ground, on the lower, right-hand section, is a deeply scored lattice pattern.
This may well be the “cupmarked stone” recorded on archaeology.ie, but it sits in a different part of the field, 58m west of the given coordinates.
The Titan, Atlas, was ordered to stand and support the high heavens on his shoulders, a comparison that often comes to mind at portal tombs; all those vast blocks held from plummeting by ancient limbs and ingenuity. None is held higher than here, the tallest (portal tomb) portal stones in the British Isles; 3.6m and 3.5m from the ground and capped by a great horned firmament, starred, appropriately, with blazing quartz.
Equally impressive is the symbiosis between this primus and the secondary capstone. Neither, being otherwise supported on just one side, would stay aloft without its companion. The former rests on one portal and the doorstone, then pins the latter onto the backstone and a pad on one sidestone. Have a look at Ryaner’s photograph, from behind the monument, for a partial illustration.
*Measurements taken from the (very, very thorough): Kytmannow, ‘Portal Tombs In The Landscape’, BAR 455, 2008, 37. Great book.
A low, upright pillar, jutting from the rushes and bushes. Then, behind this growing screen, a vast recumbent slab; 2.7m long, 2m wide and 1.45m thick*.
Recorded in the Archaeological Inventory, following local tradition, as a mass rock, it may eventually provide an interesting comparison to a similarly classed and cup-marked boulder at Coorleigh South. Due to the heavy scrub on the south-eastern side of the stone, Jack Roberts’ sketch remains the only visual record of the marks or ‘circular depressions’**.
The fallen part of a NE-SW stone pair, if position and local morphology (Knockatlowig, Knockawaddra W) are taken into account.
*Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.3271, 354.
**Roberts, J., ‘Exploring West Cork’, 1988; Ch.2, No.12, 53.
A couple of fields east of the cross at Killmeen Creamery and a short distance south of the road, are two stones, recorded separately in the Archaeological Inventory*. Only 26m divides them – a unique stretch if they initially formed a stone row, but uncommonly close for individual standing-stones. Both were knocked accidentally, by a reversing trailer, some time before the compilation of the Inventory records.
The northern slab has been partially re-erected and the stone on which it balances, though tall, may be an original support. There is no guarantee that the southern stone is exactly at its original position. A shallow depression in the ground, a couple of metres to the east, could as easily be the source. The present positions seem to roughly agree, however, with those shown on the early 20th century OS map – forming an inter-stone alignment running NNW-SSE. This, given human error, would match the N-S upright-slab orientation recalled by the landowner. The direction is, again, of course, unusual for a local stone row, but may not rule out the remains of some large free-standing monument or habitation.
Permission to visit may be obtained from the farmhouse on the opposite side of the road. One for the obsessive, perhaps.
*Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.302, No.303, 51
Visible on the rise to the west of the road between the circles of Knocks N and Knocks S is this leaning pillar; 1.25m high* and intermittently pocked, as if by wormholes, on its flat top surface. Its longer axis is oriented NE-SW. The 1st Edition OS Map indicates an accompanying stone, most likely a paired continuation of the orientation.
*Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.427, 61
Laid close to the summit on the eastern side of Burgatia hill and obvious in a field to the left of a road junction as you drive north, is this striking egg-shaped cap-stone; 2.25m by 1.7m and 1.4m thick*. It is lifted and supported by the inside edges of two blocks, the eastern and larger of which is a quartz conglomerate. Clearly visible at the next junction and almost disconcertingly close across the valley to the east, is Bohonagh stone circle.
This is an area, associated with St. Fachtna, where historic and early Christian curl tightly with the prehistoric. Immediately across the road are the remains of Lisfachtna and Templefachtna.
*Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.104, 30
A daunting puzzle, but the pieces may still be there – six or seven likely stones are mixed with the still-extending field clearance fill. Three stones remain on the perimeter. The two to the northeast; one intact and flat-topped, one a stump, look likely to be portals but the third survivor; the axial-stone, is set on a line to the north of the complete pillar and its companion.
It seems probable, given its disposition, that this stone has been pushed south a full quarter-turn and would have originally featured an upper internal concave area (22cm wide in this case), similar to Lettergorman S. A revised mid-portal-axial line would strike a notch in the high ground across the valley, about five degrees further north.
The circle is set just north of a low knoll. Only brief glimpses of distance are available between hills to the NE and ESE, but a wide vista, with a well-marked horizon, is provided to the SW.
The very obliging owner of this land lives in the farmhouse on the same by-road, immediately to the west.
Possibly the most intriguing site in the whole Argideen/Rosscarbery area – four stones, three of quartz; a unit of two sets of parallel pairs, rising from the spine of the hill. Two of the quartz stones, the southernmost of each pair, are included in the fence. The western rock is recumbent but the eastern is standing, 2.3m distant*. The third juts 1.4m north of and parallel to, the western stone.
The remaining slab, of sandstone, was recently tumbled (by cattle) from a position 1m north of the eastern rock and its southern tip now points to the base of its partner in the wall. All, assuming the recumbent quartz is fallen, would have stood in an ENE-WSW arrangement of fairly uniform appearance – each around 1m in height.
The slope is east facing but, at this particular location on the hill, it is possible to see clearly to the north, east and south. The view is only restricted to the west. It is also a position in which the monument itself could be seen from many directions, but from a distance. If the quartz boulder at Lettergorman S is an original feature its placing may reflect this – the white stones of Maulatanvally are bright on the horizon if you gaze out from the circle and over the top of the rock.
*All measurements taken from Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.921, 112.
This carved and cup-marked boulder, classified by the Archaeological Inventory as a mass-rock, is raised on the north-eastern side of a shallow basin, with mid-range views to the south and west. Cup-marked rocks are not plentiful in this area but there is a light scattering along the south coast, between Clonakilty and Rosscarbery.
The boulder is imposing, coffin shaped; 2.08m long, 1.42m wide, 0.57m thick (measurements from Archaeological Inventory), shouldered by two blocks – each placed centrally under a flank – and what appears to be a mound of smaller stones under the north-eastern, quartz-tipped end. It is aligned, along its longer axis, NE-SW. While it looks like a possible (south-west opening) boulder-burial, its traditional reputation as a mass-rock could point to a more recent, early 18th Century origin.
The top surface contains eleven cup marks, 3cm to 5cm in diameter and grouped on a raised shelf; part of a defined central rectangle. This shape is lightly marked on the longer sides, just inside the width of the stone, but deeply trenched where it separates from the main body; grooves 7cm wide and 3cm deep, 1.1m apart and parallel. The exterior of the rectangle is 1cm lower that the interior.
While tempting to imagine the entire assemblage as some prehistoric magnum opus, it seems more likely that the outline carving was done at a later date, possibly as an altar elaboration in penal times. The cup marks, gracefully curve-patterned, must be part of a much older – Bronze Age, at least – design on the same feature.
Just over 1km north-east, in the town-land of Gortnascarty and immediately to the rear of the ruins of Kilkerranmore church and graveyard, is another possible boulder-burial – classified in the Inventory as a “megalithic structure” (W36351 38865). No support stones are visible underneath. Two jagged upright slabs, perhaps the remnants of a NE-SW alignment or, less likely, part of a kerbing arrangement, lead from the south-eastern end of the monument. Given the proximity of the graveyard, these could be ancient grave-markers but, if so, they would have been placed unusually close to its side.
The boulder at Coorleigh South is not marked on the OS map so it may be best to just plot these GPS coordinates and look out for it on the south side of the road. The very obliging landowners live in the farm-buildings on the same side of the road, on the rise to the east.
Thanks to Reg for pointing this one out to me.
Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.3263, 353 (Coorleigh South); No.934, 114 (Gortnascarty).
Mired in the remnants of a junction of field fences, on a low rise above a by-road and about 1km ENE of the four-poster at Lettergorman N, this is the only wedge-tomb in the Argideen/Rosscarbery area. It is located a considerable distance south and east of the general concentrations of its class, at the northern edge of the circle/row/boulder-burial ‘complex’ that dominates the land east of Carrigfadda. Views from this position are long to the east, north and west, but bounded to the south by the rise to Knockawaddra. The tomb itself opens out (roughly) WSW, towards a point north of Kippagh.
Only three standing slabs, of the four mentioned in the Inventory, are visible. One to the north of the gallery and two, of the recorded three, at the southern side. These two stones form the shade of what must have been a substantial double-wall. At least a couple of small boulders, one ended in quartz, are wedged tightly between them, but it’s unclear whether or not these were original fill. All three side-stones lean over to the north and a large block props the southernmost slab at its base.
A stout quartz-ended boulder at the eastern tip of the monument is surely too low to be the ‘displaced backstone’ and there is no sign of the prostrate ‘displaced sidestone or roofstone’ in the heavy surrounding growth.
Beyond the north-eastern corner of the field, on the other side of an old track that leads east from the by-road, is an enigmatic, blade-like standing stone; 2.25m high and aligned NNE-SSW, called ‘The Pillar’. If the intervening hedges were removed the two monuments would occupy, but at a polite distance, the same space; a juxtaposition similar to the circle/row and wedge-tomb at Glantane N.
Given Dr. William O’Brien’s discovery of a prolonged use-history at Altar wedge-tomb, it may be worth considering the possibility that this pillar was a Late Bronze Age attempt to share what must have been judged an important, unique location. Or, perhaps, to link it with the ritual-centres on the other side of the hill. A line projected SSW from its main axis cuts east of the Knockawaddra rows, across the Glashagloragh valley towards Glanbrack.
Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.34, 18 (wedge-tomb); No.452, 63 (standing stone).
Three, maybe four stones, situated slightly back from the summit of a low hill; the view is considerable to the north and east, but bounded to the south by the proximity of higher ground at Knocklady/Clasharusheen and to the west by the field boundary hedge and the rise to the hilltop – another example of an Argideen/Rosscarbery row being unable to ‘see’ as much as it could if situated a short distance away.
Like Knockawaddra E the blindfold is partial (the Carrigfadda peaks are still visible), but in its apparent direction of indication. A look over the fence, on a roughly projected line southwestward from the row, reveals a glorious field-patch view, across the Argideen valley, to a point somewhere on the high ground at Clashatarriff. Visible with the naked eye, if you know where you’re looking, are the row at Knocks and the circle at Knocks S.
The alignment, as it originally stood, would have been a close, though oppositely focused, relation to Knockawaddra W; a swan guiding her cygnets in gliding procession or a tall sail in the bow – a huge 3m pillar to establish the direction for the line. There is a curious little additional block rooted in the ground just beside this fallen stone and mentioned in the Inventory, but it’s difficult to guess at its purpose if it was an original feature.
Best to ask at the farmhouse at the end of the track, running up straight from the right angle bend on the by-road, for directions and access details. He’s not the owner but he was kind enough to point me in the right direction.
Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.156, 36
At least a couple of interesting features here:
There seems to be either two or four stones missing; the northern portal, the stone that would have been immediately to the south of the axial and perhaps two more set opposite each other on the north and south sides. The remains of Templebryan and Knocks S pose the same reimagining problem.
Of the remaining stones, all except the southern portal have, to some degree, flattened smooth tops. It’s not unusual to come across a stone or two like this at any site, but all? Either there was a pressing ritual need for the elaboration or else this building group took particular pride in their work. The second orthosatat to the south of the axial, like that at Knocks N, is the most table-like.
The axial stone is almost a straight lift from Bohonagh; an inward-leaning, smooth top, bisected on its length by a seam and ending on its northern side with a downward slope.
The entrance stone is radially set, a feature shared by Bohonagh, Knocks N, Knocks S, Carrigagrenane S and Maulatanvally – all local circles in the Argideen/Rosscarbery group. Templebryan, Drombeg, Reenascreena, Ahagilla and Lettergorman S have their portals set on the circumference.
The large, clam-like stone, to the north of the circle, is listed in the Archaeological Inventory as a boulder-burial, though qualified in the midst of their description with a ‘possible’. There is no sign of any support stones and the accompanying standing stone is also missing. This may now be the half-covered, ground-level flag on the western side – it would originally have stood only 50cm high.
The landowners live in the farmhouse on the opposite side of the main road, to the south.
Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.43 (Stone Circle); No.99 (Boulder Burial); No.242 (Standing Stone)
Cope, ‘The Megalithic European’, 2004; 252
A typically impressive disc, set on the southern valley slope of the Argideen river; over two metres in diameter and almost a metre thick.
The measurements provided by the Archaeological Inventory for the immediate area are:
Caherkirky – 2.4m by 2.2m; 1m thick / 1.7m by 1.3m; 0.8m thick
Knocks (East) – 1.8m by 1.7m; 0.9m thick / 2.4m by 2.4m; 0.6m thick / 2m by 1.3m; 0.65m thick
Letter – 2.3m by 2.1m; 0.8m thick
One almost wonders if there was a form of Bronze Age grading in effect – an upper limit beyond which the stones would prove too cumbersome and a lower limit to ensure an impact on the landscape. The only significant deviations from this size are in the boulders accompanying the stone circles around Kealkil, although similarly connected sites, such as Gurteen and Kenmare, further north in Kerry, have the typical stand-alone dimensions:
Mill Little – 1.5m by 1.3m; 1.25m thick / 1.9m by 1.5m; 1.3m thick / 1.35m by 0.85m; 0.9m thick
Cappanaboul – 1.6m by 1.5m; 0.7m thick
Breeny More – 1.4m by 1.35m; 0.5m thick / 1.3m by 0.8m; 0.7m thick / 1.8m by 1m; 0.8m thick / 1.7m by 1.2m; 0.9m thick
Maughanaclea – 1.5m by 1.05m; 0.6m thick / 1.5m by 1m; 0.6m thick
It’s an interesting question – did these smaller monuments reflect local restrictions on availability of suitable stone, or was the construction more affected by other factors such as inter-site influence, or local tradition?
Dr. William O’Brien’s excavation at the Cooradarrigan boulder-burial uncovered intriguing evidence of a wedge-shaped post-surround, widening towards the entrance feature on the northern side, which was in turn ‘blocked’ by another post. The open side of the boulder-burial at Bohonagh was found to contain a stone socket with uprooted slab which the excavator, E.M. Fahy, proposed as defining an entrance gap to the north-west. Though possibly not a universal rule, the arrangement of support stones underneath the cover often leaves one side open, varying in orientation from monument to monument.
The structure at Letter opens slightly west of north, tilted upwards like a cannon on just two forward supports, the western of which is further elaborated, double-portal fashion, by a large pyramidal quartz block. If a target was intended, it would seem to have faced directly toward a broad rise in a valley, across the Argideen at Knockea. Visible on the western horizon, but not indicated, is the Carrigfadda range.
Three letters (M/A/T) are roughly scribed on the western side; presumably an acronym or abbreviation left behind by someone as a mark of their presence and noted by Jack Roberts in his 1988 survey.
The owners of this site, which can be easily accessed from an adjacent farmyard, live in the bungalow at the south-eastern corner of the field.
Archaeological Inventory of Cork 1992, No.125; 32
Fahy, E., ‘A Stone Circle, Hut and Dolmen at Bohonagh, Co. Cork’, JCHAS 66, 1961; 94
O’Brien, W., ‘Boulder-Burials: A Later Bronze Age Megalith Tradition in South-West Ireland’, JCHAS 97, 1992; 11-35
O’Nuallain, S., ‘Boulder-Burials’, PRIA 78 C, No.22; 92
Roberts, J., ‘Exploring West Cork’, 1988; Ch.1. No.21; 35
A bit of a conundrum this one. Jack Roberts mentions a standing stone and boulder/’cromlech’, but the Archaeological Inventory has a stone pair, one fallen. O’Nuallain doesn’t include the site in his survey of Stone Rows.
If it is a stone pair then the northeastern stone would seem to have fallen in such a way as to send its base back up the slope, although it’s possible that it may not originally have stood in line with the flat face of the southwestern stone. This standing stone is slab-like, arrow-tip shaped. The prostrate one is a thick, heavy bludgeon – the demise of older technology mimed in stone. Both stones are substantial, broad on the land.
Certain characteristics, beyond the obligatory NE-SW orientation, are shared with the other local stone pair at Knockawaddra; both sites are screened by a rise to the north – a short distance would have carried them to a position with extensive views in most directions; and both sites are situated on the north side of a tributary of the Argideen, on a line roughly adjacent to the run of the stream. If the row at Knocks really is a pair it would complete the set, to the north of the Argideen itself.
It could presumably be argued that if the rivers were a focus of the monuments, then any other positioning – with a greater view of near-by landscape features, would dilute the desired effect. However the rivers themselves are not visible from the monument platforms. Perhaps the pairs could have represented the water, when seen from above, or have been a destination to walk up to from the river below? The flat face of the standing stone here is aligned on an obvious ‘u’ on the southwestern horizon and may merit further investigation.
The site is located in the second field up, to the right of an old track-way extending straight from the newer road. This road splits at the joining point and permission to visit may be obtained by following the right-hand section, to the farmhouse at the end. Small bit of electric-fence vaulting but no major problems.
Roberts, ‘Exploring West Cork’, 1988; Ch.6 No.14; 134
Archaeological Inventory of Cork Vol. 1, 1992; No.200; 42
Just a slight addition here:
In relation to the blinkered aspect of the two rows, Fourwinds has suggested that a position on the crown of the hill, as opposed to the summit, would make them more visible to people living close-by and from below. To be seen, rather than to see. Tiompan takes a slightly different tack, moving away from considerations of vision, and suggests a ‘protecting’ effect in having the rim above, or that the pairs may have marked a boundary, delineated by the river below.
Thank you both very much.
An interesting combination of features are present at this site, set by a minor junction to the Clonakilty-Enniskeane road, though the town-land name may prove confusing to those of you more familiar with the Knocks stone circles or row – located in an identically named area about 6km southwest, on the other side of Rossmore.
On the left-hand side as you enter the field gate is a well marked ring fort, filled and outlined with mature hawthorn, its southern arc incorporated in the field/road boundary. A slab in the interior partially covers the opening to what the Archaeological Inventory classifies as a possible souterrain, exposed after a ground collapse in 1985 and a southward-heading tunnel is clearly visible inside.(1)
Less than 10m west of the ring fort perimeter is one of the very occasional multiple groupings of Cork/Kerry boulder-burials, missed in this instance by O’Nuallain in his 1978 survey but described in the Inventory as ‘Three boulder-burials set in form of triangle c. 1.5m apart.’(2)
It’s curious how ordered the stone placement is in these cases; four boulders forming a square with a NE-SW axis at Breeny More, three boulders in a N-S line at Mill Little, two boulders forming a rough, yet defined, E-W avenue to a third stone here and a similar triangular arrangement punctuated by a fourth boulder at Derrymihan West.(3) There is further documentary evidence of a line of three at Lackadotia in North Cork.(4) Of course, any order may have been for its own sake rather than a product of ritual variation or necessity.
Incidentally, if you choose to see boulder-burials as mushroom-like, or if that was any part of the original intention then the southwestern capstone here was an excellent choice – it looks like someone already took a nibble out of the top of it. Permission to visit this site can be obtained from the farmhouse to the south, on the right-hand side of the main road.
(1) Archaeological Inventory of Cork Vol. 1, 1992; No.2344; 250.
(2) ibid.; No.124; 32.
(3) O’Nuallain, PRIA 78 C, 1978; No.18; 90, 105.
(4) ibid.; No.1; 83
This mini-complex is set in a gradually-sloping, west-facing field with what would have been a long view, blocked now by the adjacent fence, towards the full Carrigfadda range. It comprises two boulder burials, the smaller of which is closely attended by a massive, horned monolith; 2.7m high and 1.9m wide. The larger, western boulder, tightly embraced by hawthorn, rests on three supports. The Inventory refers to one visible support under the eastern cap, but this is now concealed by overgrowth from the fence.
The line of this wall, running tangentially between the two monuments, also incorporates an interlink of two quartz blocks. These need not necessarily be original features, but the presence of similar stones at several Argideen river sites – Letter, Templebryan, Carrigagrenane N, Lettergorman S and both Maulatanvally groups – does offer strong support to the proposal.
It’s also tempting, though highly speculative, to zoomorphise the suggestively-shaped pillar using later, local, bull-reference place-names as evidence. Certainly, the two extreme peaks of the Carrigfadda range, to the southwest, present an uncannily similar, horn-like appearance to the top of the roughly aligned stone.
Permission to visit this remarkable site can be obtained from the new house on the side of the road, at the north side of the field.
Archaeological Inventory of Cork, 1992; No.105, 30; No.260, 47.
Nothing relevant to megalithia, but I was up past here today and my son shouted; “Look at the rabbits Daddy!” A pale brown patch in the hedge behind the stones had risen and separated into three wild deer. The rare warm day and the calm must have invited them out of the forest. Fauna, don’t ya love it?
Permission to visit both Knockawaddra rows should be obtained at the farmhouse at the beginning of the access-track, on the by-road to the east. Very nice people and interested in the monuments on their land.
Well worth a visit, despite its rather gap-tooth appearance and easily accessible at the end of a farm track just north of the Argideen. Permission to nip in can be obtained from the farmhouse on the rise south of the river, on the first left hand turn. They will probably stress the importance of not leaving fences disconnected so obviously there have been some disasters in the past. Preaching to the converted, I know.
Here lie the bones of a monster. The entry in the Archaeological Inventory, following O’Nualláin, describes a stone pair – two slabs of mismatched height, the taller over two metres – but doesn’t mention the brooding block swaddled in whitethorn, 20 metres to the east.(1,2) Or the others fallen south from the body of the fence. While these latter may be coincidental the eastern megalith, tall, thick and imposing, sits the line of the recorded pair in position and wide-face orientation.
Only Aubrey Burl, with a politely suggestive question mark after the ‘2 st st’ in his gazetteer, gives a published hint of the giant that must have stretched here.(3)
‘Sleep.
Do not fear the roaming.
eye.
Sleep.‘
Federico Garcia Lorca, from ‘Berceuse for a Sleeping Mirror’.
Permission to visit may be obtained from the farmhouse immediately south, on the left hand side of the road.
(1) Archaeological Inventory of Cork, Volume 1, West Cork, 1992, no.196; 42
(2) O’Nualláin, PRIA 88 C, 1988, no.133; 247
(3) Burl, ‘From Carnac to Callanish: The Prehistoric Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany’, 1993; 261.
There’s something just satisfying about the yellow of freshly cut fields – as redolent of the May/June cusp as hedges full of hawthorn blossom or the crisp heat, not yet turned heavy and dead on the senses.
A great time of the year for Bohonagh. The nettles and long grass around it only seem to enhance its wildness and great age, its dominance of what would be an overwhelming growth for a smaller site.
It’s an interesting test. Swap places in your mind with Drombeg. Would it be improved here, in these surroundings? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Bohonagh would certainly lose something by being tidied up.
The 30 odd heifers crying aggressively outside the fence give a reminder of the origin of the townland’s name.
The GPS reading above is for the obvious standing stone, though the first sight over the gate is the horned boulder. Sketched by Webster almost eighty years ago and described as a “demi-dolmen”, he proposed that it and the recumbent pillar immediately to the east were the remains of some type of monument.(1) Jack Roberts wrote that it could be “loosely classed as a cromlech”.(2).
My suspicion is that it may have been an upright block that has sagged and split. The main cut smoothly separates the centre, forming a sort of dry megalithic sandwich, while the upper portion is bisected into two further pieces, both resting on the lower.
The horn effect is quite striking. Bronze trumpets sounding a bull call while flames and figures dance. Maybe not, but who knows?
The “anomalous stone group” described by the Inventory is about 50m north and comprises a standing stone and a prostrate slab.(3) The compilers seem to have missed the stone described by Roberts, that now forms part of the hedge and which prompts the tantalising possibility of a three, or even four, stone arrangement. Webster’s sketch shows the field before the wall was erected; then containing the two standing stones, the grounded slab and a fine stretch of empty grass as far as the house at Quaker’s crossroads. From a position in the centre of the triangle, and looking southish – parallel to a line between the two uprights, your gaze travels straight across to the large boulder. Contact.
(1) Webster, ‘Rude Stone Monuments in West Cork’, JCHAS 35, 1930; 35.
(2) Roberts, ‘Exploring West Cork’, 1988, Ch(1) 39; 44
(3) Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Voume 1, West Cork, 1992, 926; 113.
Something worth pointing out about Lettergorman, with regard to the quartz boulder. It has previously been noted, a belief held by the former owner, that the stone was probably moved in from the field, from a position either along the axis or in line with Carrigfadda.
However the stone has been in the same position since Windele’s survey in the mid 1800’s and when viewed from centre-circle crudely indicates the four stone grouping on the slope of Maulatanvally. An arrangement three-quarters composed of quartz.
So, this is it for Garryglass – deserted, destroyed and now grown over. Like a frontier fort reduced to a limp point of rubble it left the last century with just one stone, presumably the central monolith – having entered it with eleven others. Meanwhile the ‘rough pasture’ mentioned in O’Nuallain’s 1984 survey has become a dense plantation of trees and the clearing left around the stone has filled with a head-high and almost impenetrable thickness of furze and bramble. When finally I fought my way through I was almost tempted to kiss it so it could wake up and make me its prince.
Don’t visit unless:
(1) You really like quartz
(2) You have a GPS and follow these coordinates. Even then there’s a probable reading difference and...
(3) You don’t mind a bit of discomfort and the probability of ripped clothing.
Something about nothing maybe... On the top of the knoll in the field to the west there’s a prostrate ‘orthostat-sized’ slab with one level end. A doorway for the little men or one of the missing stones...?
Pointing a touch further north than Bohonagh, in terms of declination, with a measurement of 1.22 degrees*, Knocks North provides a cruder alignment to the equinoxes, further hindered by the tree growth on the horizon. On the other hand the local historian that has witnessed it mentioned the sparkling of the falling sun on the big splash of quartz on the axial stone. Worth a visit, I think.
Permission can be obtained from the farm to the south, on the left hand side of the road.
* Patrick and Freeman, ‘Revised Surveys of Cork-Kerry Stone Circles’, Archaeoastronomy, no.5 (JHA, xiv (1983)); S51: Knocks/A.
Just a quick few words to inform anyone who may have visited this site previously that the land owner has removed the hedge that was about fifteen metres west of the complex. It’s a bit of a cold rinse to the senses if you’re used to seeing it the way it was, but it does open the view out. Less distraction in the eyeline I suppose.
The ground is intact, dry and solid for a distance of about ten metres from the monument but between this and the gates to the west and east it looks to have been turned over and reseeded, with grass growing in isolated clumps. This ground, even in the dry conditions at the moment, was excessively waterlogged. No change there then.
A very steep climb. 650 metres according to Carleton Jones’ gazzeteer (Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, 2007), and straight up. The tomb is just the other side of the peak, at the end of the track.
Inside the chamber it’s diffcult not to engage with the salmon-pink flush of the stones, freckled with bits of quartz and this and that, pitted and alternatively smooth as you gaze along their features. Then the passageway pulls your attention out across the vast plain underneath. It points much too far north, at least on my compass, for a solar orientation but it’s tempting to imagine, having read Bawn’s bit of folklore below, some ancient crumble of bone staring out over his former domain.
A gorgeous place.
One of Somerville’s five stone circles of West Cork (JCHAS 35, 1930; 79), Maulatanvally can suffer when placed in comparison with its more intact brethren. Lacking the more monumental construction and solar event alignments of Drombeg and Bohonagh, the beauty and seclusion of Reenascreena and the mystery of the lost world at Carrigagrenane SW, it could almost be the odd child of large local sites.
Situated on a platform, with the ground falling swiftly to the south and west, the circle is pushed fairly tightly against the eastern field boundary. The gap and deeply rutted track from the next field are right beside it and just on the rise to the north is a chicken factory. After the drop to the west the ground rises steeply again, over the Dunmanway-Rosscarbery road, to reach a hill summit that gives the townland its name. Beyond this lies the omnipresent Carrigfadda.
The rise of ground to the west pulls an axial azimuth of 256.5 back to a declination of -5.4 (Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, 1999; 217), offering no obvious solar or lunar event to a modern observer. What might be significant however is its direct line to the peak on the northern section of Carrigfadda, the imposing centre of the source forks of the Argideen river, a flow whose silver is mirrored in the quartz components of many of these monuments.
According to O’Nuallain (PRIA 84C, 1984; 21) there would have been originally 11 stones in the perimeter of a circle with a common local diameter of about 9.5 metres. Seven stones remain, with four in an arc at the western side and three in a group to the east. The entire northern side is missing, including what should have been the northern portal. Placed slightly off centre is the squarish, box-like quartz block, smaller than that at Lettergorman SW and Carrigagrenane NE but still dazzlingly white.
The western section contains the axial stone, long but low at just over knee height, its two flankers and the continuing stone to the north. The top of the axial is rather weathered and it has a curious seam running across the middle of its inner face. The eastern side still has the radially set southern portal, now leaning somewhat to the north, with a rather sharp looking stump and a round topped circle stone to the south. Despite the wrecked guttery look to the remains this circle hasn’t deteriorated since at least as far back as 1930 and possibly much further (see plan below).
A slightly unusual aspect to the ring is the position of the axial stone with regard to the remaining stones. It would seem to be positioned to be perpindicular to a line running between the stump to the south of the portal and that stone, rather than facing a line to the north of it, between it and the presumed northern portal. This stump can’t be a portal here because it is set with its long axis along the perimeter and it is well off the centre line of the circle as deduced from the remaining stones.
The whole eastern section seems to be flattened and pushed slightly too far north to make a true circle. If a secondary alignment was intended it would be closer to an equinox event than the mid-portals-axial line, but this has never been surveyed.
This site is located in the second field to the east of the road from Dunmanway to Rosscarbery, just down from the rim of the hill after Kippagh bridge. There is a little lay-by as the second indentation in the ditch after the chicken factory. Look over the brambles here.
Just before the summer I went to a talk given by Professor O’Brien on the prehistory of the Dunmanway area. While the first half of his presentation was a steady trot around the expected topic, he spent the rest of the time speaking about his excavation at Clashanimud, a townland that he ventured to translate as ‘the trench of the timber’. It’s possible that some folk memory remained into historic times of this massive wooden construction.
I’ve included the newpaper report from August in the miscellaneous section below, as a reasonable summary of his findings. On visiting the site myself in early June I found access to be easy, with a parking spot just up the hill from the entrance at the eastern side.
The remains of this probable five stone circle (O’Nuallain PRIA 84C, 1984; 44) are situated at the eastern end of a marshy field which slopes down gently north to a noisy and intensely overgrown stream. The ground rises towards Carrigfadda to the southwest but a view to the horizon in this direction is obscured by a line of trees near the southern field boundary.
Two hip-height stones; the axial and its northern flanker are all that is left to immediate sight. O’Nuallain noticed a quartz boulder 1.7m and a stone 90cm at their maximum placed against the fence a few yards to the east. I could only find the quartz stone, and then only by its brilliance speckling through the earth and growth now covering it. I dusted it off somewhat for the photograph and then covered it up again.
The axial stone leans outwards considerably to the west but looks as if it originally presented a level, flat top, pitted in the centre. The flanker leans inwards to the south giving it a rather bulbous look, tapering to the bottom. Its shading and shape are very striking to the eye.
O’Nuallain grants the possibility that the two stones at the fence originally formed part of the monument and it certainly would not be unusual for the coincidence of a sizeable quartz block with a stone circle in this area. Its dimensions are apparently in excess of the wonderful conglomerate in Lettergorman and I would have loved to have seen more than the foot-size patch I scratched open.
The site can be approached with courage or recklessness through the marsh, brambles, water traps, sheer drops and wire fences from the road to the east but may be better attempted from the Carrigfadda side.
Three fields in from the really rather good farm park. Great selection of ride-ons for kids.
According to Frances Lynch (Prehistoric Anglesey 1970, 167):
“More is known about the burials close to the large stones at Henblas, Llangristiolus, but a good deal of confusion remains. The stones in question, which are huge glacial erratics, were long considered to be an artificial structure, some monstrous megalithic tomb, and have naturally attracted a good deal of legend and speculation. It seems clear that there were originally other stones,” (see Rhiannon below) “probably more erratics, in the vicinity, and that in removing these an urn containing burnt bones and a ring of blue glass were found. Even though the stones are a natural feature, this burial need not be doubted for they are a very remarkable phenomenon which must have attracted the attention and admiration of a people used to setting up meini hirion and other large stone monuments”
In the picture I posted above I show the stones as viewed from a distance of about 45 feet.
According to Burl (Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany 1995, 2005), quoting the Reverend Henry Rowlands, this site contained a circle of ‘eight or nine great pillar-stones... about twelve or fourteen yards diameter’.
Is it possible to imagine a stone just in front of my position and an arc of maybe three or four megaliths continuing on either side to meet at the pair opposite?
I’ve not got a lot to add here, given the fame of this site and its comprehensive coverage in all sorts of guide books. A great little volume written by the O’Kellys is available from the proud and committed landowner.
Aubrey Burl in his big ‘Stone Circles of...’ book remarks that the monument’s relationships lie with the Wicklow circles and not with the Scottish recumbent and Munster axial stone varieties. I’m not so sure that a connection to the ASCs should be written off completely. Two northeastern portals look along a main axis, with a winter sunset declination, to two stones at the southwest which, because they sit together, give the same shape as one more broad than high. A supplied v-notch sits in the middle of these ‘axial stones’, an effect also offered by natural valleys in the sightlines of the Winter Solstice circles of Drombeg and Lettergorman South. Maybe in 1000 years an idea could mutate and fuse with other influences and appear some distance to the South?
I’ve been debating with myself for a long time about whether or not to include this site. These aren’t even really field notes, since they’re being written in my living-room, months after my last visit there. If an Englishman’s home is his castle, does that make an Irishman’s sitting-room his field?
Burl, sounding almost bitter in his guide entry, gives it a special category, namely ‘unseeable’, and discourages any visit not involved with official clearance. Ruggles in his orientation tables at the rear of ‘Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland’ (1999; 217), mentions the immovable vegetation that made accurate survey impossible. The monument is almost drowned in a wash of turbulent growth. Yet it has not always been this way.
I have posted Somerville’s plan from the beginning of the 20th century. A print of Webster’s sketch of 1930 hangs on my wall, the circle open and clear. As long as I have been interested in the past, this site has fascinated, or rather, obsessed me.
It sits on a slight rise at the north side of a tidy little field. Carrigfadda looms to the west. The ground is open to the south and on a sunny day you can almost feed on the glow and brightness in the air. Rabbits make surprised darts across in front of you and the only sounds are earfuls and earfuls of natural life.
A quick glance at O’Nuallain’s 1984 plan will give you an idea of the shape of the monument: partially used as a fence on the western side, it is 8.5 metres in diameter, reckoned to have contained 19 stones up to 1.1 metres high, with a 70cm high and 1.4 metre wide axial stone.
The plans diverge over two facts. O’Nuallain shows the detached radial portals, strangely missed by Somerville. On the other hand the one foot high centre stone shown and described by Somerville and Webster was either missing or concealed when O’Nuallain’s survey took place.
I have poked through here myself at winter time when things die back a bit and experienced a kind of euphoria as portals and circle stones are revealed. It must be tied with its being hidden, yet being there, its sparkling location, the character and perfect size of its pillars, my immersion in its history and forbidden reputation and perhaps a multitude of other things. It’s difficult to exactly put a finger on why it should but I know that this place affects me more than any other.
Access is over a gate with some dire warnings about unauthorised entry, but the farm is just down the road to the south if you want to give it a go and ask.
This fine alignment, looking like nothing so much as the plates of a submerging dinosaur, nestles on a plateau just south of the forestry on the other side of the hill from the four-poster at Lettergorman N. Lettergorman S is downhill slightly to the southwest, in the first field beyond the townland boundary.
The tallest stone, a fin-shaped pillar almost 3 metres tall, is at the northeast of the row. The middle stone is a straightforward block, and the southwesterly stone, possibly others, are obscured in a wig of dead vegetation.
The row is aligned, looking in this direction (and fairly unremarkably), on the eastern slope of the hillock of Maulatanavally. Clive Ruggles (Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, 1999; 220) mentions a direct alignment in the opposite direction, to a hilltop to the northeast, but the forestry wall has cut off any sight of this. The views would seem to have been extensive in all directions before the plantation.
A word of warning. Due to unbelievably sodden ground in the approach from the west in wintertime it may be wiser to come at it via the farm to the east.
Aubrey Burl, in his guide, reckons this to be an ‘outstanding site’ with ‘easy’ access. To be honest I made a bit of a mess of it myself, but it isn’t really that hard to find.
Take the road south past the circles at Kealkil and Breeny More. When you eventually reach the T-junction head east for a mile and a quarter. There should be two houses down the slope to your right, with very close parallel driveways. There will also be a bungalow on the hill to your left. You can ask for permission here.
The gateway to the four-poster is a short distance back the road to the west. Keep to the track and you should pass back above the owner’s bungalow. You will cross a small stream and see an old wall topped with holly trees.
Walk up the hill past this and you can now, hopefully, see the tip of the tallest stone.
Gortnacowly is one of just five accepted four-posters in Cork and Kerry. This category of monument was only confirmed to exist here in the last thirty years. Its fourth stone, like that at Lettergorman, is missing. (According to O’Nuaillain’s 1984 description it was still present in 1899.)
The three surviving stones are all tall, again like Lettergorman, miles and hills away to the south east. On the other hand the domination of the triangle by one huge ten foot hulk gives it an immediate visual similarity to four stoned Cappaboy Beg, a hill and valley to the north. The monolith there is at the north east of the structure, while here it stands to the south west. Apparently at Reenkilla in Kerry, which I have yet to see, there is a similar domination to the north west.
Its setting is spectacular. The Maughanaclea hills rise above it to the north east. To the east sits Nowen hill and to the south stretches wide Mullaghmesha.
The monument itself however leaves me feeling somewhat underwhelmed. Perhaps it’s the absence of the fourth stone. Even when a circle mirrors the horizon, or perhaps because a circle does so, it has an intentional impact on the landscape. With the fourth stone removed the structure seems more random and natural. Or maybe I just like things round.
PS. I’ll stick in a plan ‘after’ O’Nuallain or Burl to show where the missing stone could have been.