GAZETTEER of
IRISH PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS

 

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Place-names in italics refer to listed entries.

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Duntryleague: Passage-tomb
R 779 284
Sheet 73

On the top of Duntryleague Hill, a fine skeletal passage-tomb - denuded entirely of its cairn - still retains its long passage and a wider, cruciform chamber whose 3 roofstones are stepped one above the other in a style common in Brittany.

This rather poor photograph taken in 1972 shows the roofless passage leading to the massively-roofed chamber. Thirty years on, the surrounding trees have reached their maximum height, and have been felled, thus restoring the splendid views.
Click here for a more recent photo.

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Lackanagoneeny: Stone-row
R 838 533
Sheet 66

This alignment of three stones, all about 1.6 metres tall and set one metre apart, affords splendid views. A fourth stone stands some 5 metres to the SW, suggesting that there could have been seven or more stones originally.

~ 6.8 km N by E is Baurnadomeeny wedge-tomb, county Tipperary.

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Lough Gur: Stone circles, crannógs, tombs, hut-sites, etc.
R 640 410
Sheet 65

Lough Gur has a great concentration of prehistoric remains, including wedge-tombs, foundations of huts, stone circles, standing-stones and crannógs (artificial refuge-islands in lakes).

The most famous of these monuments is the Late Neolithic or very Early Bronze Age stone circle and henge known as the Líos (= enclosure) in Grange townland, situated to the E of the Bruff-Limerick road. Heavy stones stand shoulder to shoulder against a massive bank of gravelly clay 10 metres wide, 1.3 metres high and nearly 70 metres across. Most are of local limestone, but some are volcanic breccia from over a mile away. Of these the heaviest stone just N of the entrance, known as Rannach Cruim Dubh (prominent black stooper or hunchback), weighs over 60 tons, and aligns with midsummer sunrise. Next to this huge stone stands a small stack of stones. This is thought to represent Eithne, the Irish Persephone - corn child and concubine of the dark god Crom Dubh. It is said that the whole embanked enclosure was dug by Crom Dubh with his two pronged spear.

The most important of several alignments, however, is that of the short stone-lined entrance passage with two massive stones at the opposite side of the circle, whose tops form a V-notch for observing the moon's minimum midsummer setting in 2500 BC.

~ 100 metres NNE is a second circle, smaller (15 metres in diameter), unprotected from livestock, but also constructed of large, but beautifully weathered, stones, which can be reached through a purpose-built gap in the fence just over a low dry stone wall. It consists of very rough and uneven stones with a gap where, it would appear, at least two orthostats have been removed.

click for more pictures

~ 350 metres NNE is large, gently-leaning menhir standing 3.5 metres tall behind a farm building. The west face appears to have been worked flat - almost concave - while the rear is very rounded, and the name of 'stooper' (cruach) would be more appropriate for this stone than for the one at the Líos. It stands to the east of an ancient sunken track that runs north-south past it and the foundations of several hut sites and ancient field boundaries.

~ Just visible over the hedge 100 metres to the south of Grange Líos and accessible through a gate in the same field boundary is Cloch a' Bhíle, or the Tree of Life, said to be a lithic manifestation of the supernatural tree that mythically grows at the bottom of the nearby Lough. In its gnarled, bramble-protected mossiness it does resemble a trunkless tree.

The farmer who now looks after much of the land around Lough Gur sells a small but very informative booklet on the whole area written by O’Kelly who excavated the site in 1939. The fence surrounding and protecting the circle was erected at Tim’s own expense and so he asks for a contribution of only two euros from adults visiting the site. Please do respect this if he is not around, so that the site can continue to be kept tidy for all to enjoy.

~ Near the NW corner of the lough is a stone-built crannóg now surrounded by marsh instead of water.

~ To the S of the road skirting the S shore of the Lough in Loughgur townland is a fine wedge-tomb some 9 metres long, with a slab-roof gallery and a separate chamber instead of a portico at the SW (front) end.

click here for high-resolution pictures

~ About 750 metres SW, on the same side of the same road is another - ruined - wedge-tomb, known as Leaba na Muice (The Pig's Bed).

~ On the other side of the Lough are more standing-stones, circles, and another crannóg, as well as stone forts, and neolithic house-sites.

~ The visitors' centre is better than many.

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