An ancient bog body has been discovered at a midland bog where a similar find was made two years ago.
The remains were found by a Bord na Móna worker at Rossan Bog on the Meath/Westmeath border on Saturday morning.
A Bord na Móna spokesman said: “The remains of a bog body were found in Rossan Bog two miles from Kinnegad on the Meath and Westmeath border.”
The spokesman said the employee discovered the remains prior to beginning work and immediately put Bord na Móna’s protocol in place.
ryaner
Now in the National Museum of Ireland in Kildare St., this stone was found in the vicinity of this site in the townland of Mullamast – it’s referred to as “The Mullamast Stone” and should not be confused with the Mullamast Longstone up the road.
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Yet another Dublin curiosity, I’d never heard of this until I stumbled upon it here: irishstones.org/place.aspx?p=246 And what a nice surprise it is, nestled to the side of an, until recently, overgrown graveyard.
Rathcoole is supposedly named after this: themodernantiquarian.com/site/15924/newtown_lower.html the rath of Coole or Cumhaill, he of Fionn fame and is at the west edge of Dublin county.
I arrived and didn’t hold out much hope of getting to the stone as the walls of the church/graveyard are very high and the gate seemed forbidding. However, there was a groundsman there and I pushed through the gate no problem. I asked him if he knew of the stone and sure enough he led me to it. I asked if he knew much about it and he said he had heard that the tradition was to pass a newborn through the hole in a cleansing ritual, similar to baptism I guess.
The man was very friendly and showed me around the grounds – turns out that he’s a volunteer, doing the work to keep busy and doing a fine job, having cleared what was a seriously overgrown perimeter.
The stone, not even a metre square, sits there amongst the various relics of Christianity, a reminder of our pagan past, a survivor, pitted and pockmarked and tilting and still here, a small trace, or testament, to a tradition that remains despite all that time has altered.
Closer view of the hut site in the previous shot, looking west.
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Hut site outside the ring, looking south towards Boleycarrigeen.
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On the southern ramparts of the fort towards Keadeen.
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Inner bank, fosse and outer bank on the northern arc of the fort.
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The circle from the north in late evening sunshine, Sept. ‘14.
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From archaeology.ie:
Description: Subcircular trivallate hilltop enclosure on a slight knoll on the lower NW spur of Baltinglass Hill with steep slopes to the W (overlooking the River Slaney) and gentler slopes to the N and E. The site is overlooked by ‘Rathcoran’ hillfort (WI027-026001-) c. 500m to the SE. The inner area (dims. c. 100m NW-SE; c. 75m NE-SW) is defined by an irregular stone bank, best preserved at the NE (Wth c. 4m), set along the perimeter of a largely natural scarp (H 0.5m). No indication of an entrance, external fosse or internal features. The middle rampart, composed of earth and stone (Wth c. 7m; H 1.7-2.5m) defines an area 170m NW-SE and 150m NE-SW and has an external fosse (Wth 3.5-5m; D 1m) and an outer bank (Wth 2m; H 1m), with a possible entrance (Wth 2m) at the N. The outermost rampart (Wth 6-7m; max. H 1m) (not shown on the 1907 OS 6-inch map) is also composed of earth and stone and is identifiable within the forestry on the E side and as a cropmark on the NW and S-SE sides (overall dims. c. 250m NW-SE; c. 250m NE-SW). (CUCAP, APA 45, AHK 55) (Price 1949, 143; OPW files)
The above description is derived from the published ‘Archaeological Inventory of County Wicklow’ (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 17 December 2008
Date of last visit: 04 April 1989
Looking down the passage to the basin stone.
Image credit: ryaner
The arc of the kerb of the original cairn is visible inside the wall.
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The jumble that is the 2nd largest tomb.
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Pano showing the tombs within the enclosing wall. This wall was created using the stones of the cairn that covered the tombs.
Image credit: ryaner
From archaeology.ie:
Description: Situated on the summit of Baltinglass Hill in the SE sector of Rathcoran hillfort (WI027-026001-). It was excavated in 1934-6 (Walshe 1941, 221-36) and was found to consist of a multiperiod kerbed cairn (diam. c. 27m) underneath which five structures were identified. The cairn material has been built up to form a massive protective wall around the monument (CUCAP, ASU 48). A kerb of large stones surrounded the cairn, and an inner kerb was revealed during excavation. Two stones of the inner kerb and one of the outer bear passage tomb art. The main tomb is on the N side of the cairn; a short passage (L 3.2m) within the cairn is roofed with slabs and leads to a chamber (diam. 2m) which contains three shallow recesses. It contains a stone basin with pecked ornament. On the S side of the cairn is another tomb comprising a chamber divided into three compartments; no evidence for a passage was found. Two of its stones bear passage tomb art. On the NW side of the cairn are the remains of a small corbelled structure, partly overlain by the inner kerb. Immediately SW of this was a small cist-like structure which is no longer visible. A fifth chamber stands inside the kerb to the E of the main tomb. The finds from the site include the cremations of at least three adults and one child, flint scrapers, Carrowkeel pottery, and bone pins. Finds from beneath the cairn included a stone axe, a flint javelin-head, scrapers, an egg-shaped stone, carbonised wheat grains and hazelnuts. A saddle quern was also found in the cairn material (Cooney 1981, 102-6). The site is referred to in the OS Name Books as a cave on the NE side of a large collection of stones. Another cairn lies 100m to the SW. (Walshe 1941, 221-36; Herity 1974, 259-60; Shee-Twohig 1981, 223)
The above description is derived from the published ‘Archaeological Inventory of County Wicklow’ (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 17 December 2008
Date of last visit: 11 April 1989
From archaeology.ie:
Description: Large oval enclosure (max. dims. c. 400m NW-SE; c. 300m NE-SW; int. dims. 380m NW-SE; 270m NE-SW) defined by two ramparts, enclosing the summit of Baltinglass Hill with extensive views to the N, E and S and overlooking ‘Rathnagree’ hillfort (WI027-010----) c. 500m to the N. The ramparts are up to 16m in width, are best defined at the N and NW, and are largely composed of stone. The average distance between ramparts is 15m. There is no clear indication of an entrance. The interior rises towards the SE corner of the site, and there is a large amount of loose stone and many rock outcrops within the ramparts. At the summit there is a passage tomb (WI027-026003-) surrounded by a massive protective drystone wall (Wth 3m; H 2m) built with stones from the cairn which had covered the passage tomb. There are two possible hut sites in the interior (WI027-026002-, WI027-026004-), and a cairn (WI027-076----) outside the outer rampart on the SW side. (CUCAP, AYP 27-30; ASU 48) (Price 1934, 34)
The above description is derived from the published ‘Archaeological Inventory of County Wicklow’ (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 23 October 2012
My companion today was Ruth, a sometime or somewhat-interested megalithic explorer. This monument is on land that was formerly owned by her grandfather so it was a trip down memory lane to her childhood for her.
The monument sits north, high up on a ridge above the Liffey – there’s a lake down there now, made by the hydro-electric dam that is part of a scheme that includes another dam upstream that created the Poulaphuca reservoir.
The bank is very visible on the western side, about a metre high, but with parasitic beech trees adorning it. Yet again, as at many sites close by, Slievecorragh and Church mountain are the mother’s breasts, slightly east of south from here. The southern arc of the bank is flatter, barely visible in places, before re-appearing as we turn to the east and north.
The curious little domed mound is in the centre of the 35 metre diameter ring, but set in about 10 metres, about 8 or 9 metres diameter itself and about a metre and a half tall. There is a beech tree growing on its northern side.
The external ditch/fosse varies in depth around the bank, but is most profound on the northern arc where it is 1.3 metres from top of bank to bottom of ditch. There is an entrance feature here too.
There has been modern digging both on the southern side of the mound and in the south-eastern quadrant of the barrow between the bank and the mound. Overall, a very impressive monument, impressively set with extensive views to the south and west.
Kilranelagh Graveyard, in the wilds of Wicklow, has lots of ancient structures, not all prehistoric, but still ancient. They’re continuing to bury people here, and after what must have been centuries of neglect, the place is very well looked after and obviously well loved by its carers.
The stones that we are interested in are very neolithic looking, like the entrance portals and sillstone of a small passage grave, its last remnants, the rest now long gone. Yet these remain, and you’re supposed to pass the coffin between them before burial.
Nearby, within the graveyard, is a holy well, St. Brigid’s of course. Out the gate to the south, the setting sun bathes Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs in an orange glow. Leaving I came across two graves, one with a very rough-hewn stone with no inscription but with a small toy gun and 2 toy motorbikes, the other, the last resting place of Clive Mervyn Wynne, died 2nd April, 1976, age 6 weeks. This is a place of power and peace and of sadness.
Thirty years ago, a peat cutter working in the Cheshire countryside spotted what he thought was a piece of wood trundling along a conveyor belt.
Tasked with the job of keeping the belt free of debris, he threw it away, but as it hit the ground, the dirt fell from it and the remains of a human leg lay in the summer sun.
That gruesome discovery on 1 August 1984 led to Rick Turner, the newly-appointed county archaeologist, being called to the site on Lindow Moss.
He says what followed were “the most exciting days of my archaeological career”.
“I was taken out on to the moss and shown where the previous day’s peat had been taken from,” he says.
“Walking the uncut sections, I found a flap of dark, tanned skin projecting from below.
“Reporting my discovery to the police, we agreed I would be given a day to excavate the remains.”
On 6 August, the site was recorded and sampled, the limits of the remains were established and “Lindow Man was lifted – within his block of surrounding peat – on his way to international celebrity”, Mr Turner says.
More:
Colvinstown Hill in the background.
Image credit: ryaner
The stone hidden in the heather and rushes.
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South-east over the Carlow plain between Baltinglass and the northern Blackstairs.
Image credit: ryaner
What looks like the smashed remains of a passage and chamber.
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The cairn is in the centre of the shot – you can see how the wall bends around the monument.
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Straight through the ‘back’ of the stones. I imagine this as the back, or inside of the ‘tomb’.
Image credit: ryaner
