Equinox Sunset, Lisheentyrone Stone Pair & Rock Art

Equinox setting-sun at Lisheentyrone stone pair

In March 2014 I visited this stone pair to examine whether it may be potentially be aligned to the Equinox sun-set / sun-rise. Amazingly enough when there I discovered a panel of cup-marks that had previously not been noted before. This was North Tipperary's first confirmed find of rock-art and as such opens up the area as one where more art is likely to be found. To cap off what personally was a great delight it also appears that the standing stone pair are also aligned towards the Equinox sun-set.

Since then I have wondered about whether at Equinox sun-rise, that the standing stones may cast a significant shadow onto the rock-art panel itself. Astronomical alignments are beginning to be understand at rock-art panels around the world so it wouldn't be without precedent.
The weather has not been conductive to checking this year but hopefully over the next few Equinox's it may become apparent.

What indeed was a "Cloghinkelly"?

Present remains of Church at Kilmore

After watching the talk on Dermot F Gleeson by Danny Grace as part of the Gleeson Clan Gathering I felt his research on Tipperary would have a lot to offer.
Looking through the papers he wrote on JSTOR the first one that caught my eye was
"What was a "Cloghinkelly". Included in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1953, this short piece that he wrote intrigued me. One because I've never heard of a Cloghinkelly and two because it relates to a few early Christian sites that I have been looking at over the last few years.

Remains at Latteragh

He refers to some documents from the 1600s which relate to the holdings of church lands in the Diocese of Killaloe. Included within in these holdings are a Cloghinkelly. So to resurrect a question that to my knowledge hasn't been answered, just what was one of these?

Gleeson quotes a line "the vicarage of Lattrah, and ye Cloninkellies of Kilmore, Kilteely, Clonibrah and Kiltinanleth" he also mentions the "Cloghinkelly of Yohall arra" and "ffinah, (and) Killinasullah".
He goes on to propose that it is a phonetic spelling of the Irish Clochan Cailleach or "Women's House".
Is this a suggestion that women lived within or near the monasteries also?

(Kiltinanleth appears to be just north of Templemore where a church and enclosure was meant to have been located but there are no remains today).

There is the remains of a nunnery near Shanagolden known as Mainistir na Caileach Duff. So I think we can conclude the Caileach could also apply to a nun and therefore the translation could be "Nun's House". I wonder were these some kind of nunneries attached to these sites? Both Lattragh, Kilmore and Youghal Arra were all home to monasteries / monastic enclosures.

Perhaps it was a building for women coming to worship at the Churchs of these monasteries. Was segregation based on gender practiced at early monastic sites in Ireland?
I know at larger monasteries such as Clonmacnoise there were a number of concentric enclosures of which the general public were only allowed access to the outside ones. 

Lastly Cailleach is often translated as witch (See Sliabh na Cailleach in Co. Meath). Although the least likely, could a Cloghinkelly be a "Witches house"?

Window in current Church ruins at Youghalarra

Shrough Passage Tomb, Astronomically aligned to the Equinox?

The setting-sun within the passage on the Autumn Equinox 2014

Situated on Slievenamuck which makes up one half of the Glen of Aherlow is Tipperary's only confirmed passage tomb. However I do think there are at least two other passage tombs in Tipp, one on top of the Mahurslieve near Kilcommon and another on top of Slievenamon.

This passage tomb is described on Archaeology.ie as follows;

"On the summit of Shrough Hill, part of the Slievenamuck/Moanour mountains, with forestry encroaching to within 10m to N, E and W, forestry to W has been felled affording an extensive view of the Galty mountains and foothills below. A stone wall runs E-W along the S edge of the mound. The monument consists of a roughly circular cairn (diam. 30m; H 2m) with a small, roofless polyogonal chamber (int. dims. L 2.2m; Wth 1.2m), aligned roughly E-W, near the centre of the cairn (De Valera and Ó Nualláin 1982, 101; Ó Nualláin and Cody 1987, 76-8). The sidestones vary in height from 1.2m to 1.8m (ibid. 76). The cairn is overgrown with gorse, heather and low scrub."


Now most people are familiar with the Winter Solstice sunrise alignment at Newgrange in Co. Meath, on the shortest day of the year the rising sun shines into the long passage there. However there are likely to be a number of other intentionally aligned megalithic monuments around Ireland. This is something I have always had an interest in and I created a blog / website about this here. In it I have detailed almost 100 potential alignments around the country.

My trusted companion at Shrough passage tomb.

Here at Shrough the short passage is aligned on an east-west axis with the entrance to the west. I have always suspected that it might be aligned to the setting sun on the Equinox (the day when night and day are half and half) which occurs twice during a year, first in Spring on the 21st March and then in the Autumn on the 21st September.
I previously visited this tomb at the Autumn Equinox sun-set in 2013 but unfortunately the sun was obscured by cloud. Access for the Equinox is difficult as its a bit hairy getting back down out of there after sunset as you are left 2kms from the nearest road on top of a mountain with much forestry all around. I again visited in 2014 and for a few brief minutes the sun broke through a bank of cloud to illuminate the passage. To the west where the sun sets is Knockfierna or "The fairy hill of Donn Firinne" and to the east Slievenamon or "Mountain of women" is clearly in view so this is an area steeped in folklore.
Now I have to accept that as the passage is only 2.2m long and the exact size of the original entrance unknown, this means the alignment lacks accuracy. It is likely that the sun illuminates into the tomb from a good few weeks either side of the Equinox. One thing that would be interesting to see is the exact final setting place of the sun, the last time there I could not see this due to the cloud. If it both illuminated the chamber and set over the hill of Knockfierna on the Equinox then that would greatly reduce the chance of it being a coincidence.

The tomb looking towards the west with an arrow showing where Knockfeerina is located.

The hill of Slievenamuck also appears in folklore on duchas.ie

http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922302/4868451

"A long, long time ago there lived a fierce black pig on the Sliab na Muc Hills. This pig was the terror of the neighbourhood and nobody would dream of roaming on the hilltops for fear of meeting with this terrible beast. It happened that one day a great giant called Diarmuid chanced to come across the pig at a point or peak on those hills called Corrin (Cairn). The pig in its rage started rooting up the ground and continued doing so until it had made a huge deep hole. This hole is still to be seen and for years everybody that passed it by threw a stone into it, why I cannot say.
The giant then attacked the pig put could not kill it. The battle raged for hours and towards sunset they found themselves 3 or 4 miles further east at a place called Rathdarby. The giant here made a last attempt with his spear to kill the pig but he missed his thrust only to find the pig taking a sudden hold of him on the ground. It then seized the giant by the throat and killed him. He was buried on the spot where today three large stones mark the site of his grave. This grave is on Mr. T. Kennedys land Rathdarby, a few miles from here.
All the old people called the valley lying south of the Sliab na Muc Hills the "Valley of the Black Pig".

This story would have been particularly interesting if the pig had travelled west rather than east. Shrough is 3 or 4 miles from Rathdarby and the mention of sunset in folklore would have been a suggestive one.

The Cats Stone of Tipperary

I first spotted the name Catstone on one of the old 1840's maps for the Dromineer area. It of course reminded me of the famous Catstone at Uisneach in Co. Westmeath, thought to be the mythical centre of Ireland.

Cats Stone marked on the old 1840's maps (Copyright NMS)

It is in the townland of Shannonhall and marked as a redundant record in the SMR. Archaeology.ie describes it as follows

"Situated just off crest of rise in very undulating pastureland. Large conglomerate of sedimentary rock, obviously layered with quartz pebbles. This is a large, roughly rectangular erratic (3.4m x 2.5m; H 1.3m on N side; H 2.2m on S side) resting on ground surface. Not an archaeological monument, though it is marked on 1st (1840) ed. as 'Stone' with typical depiction of pillar stone."

I visited it one day a couple of years ago to see what it looked like and it does look similar to the one at Uisneach. As above there was nothing to suggest it is anything other than a natural erratic boulder.

Later I found reference to it in Martin Power's book "Dear Land, Native Place" in which he had this to say about it;

"On George Clarke's farm at Shannonhall, Dromineer, there stands a single large stone which is map-listed as a "Cat-stone". This stone which stands alone on high ground in a large field is visible from long distances, particularly from the high Owney and Arra area.
The stone is not part of an outcrop, but stands free, being narrowest at base. It is about 10 feet high with a circumference measure of 39ft at the centre height. It is conglomerate substance, containing particles of many types of stone. It is native to the west of Ireland, and was pushed by the glaciers to its present location in the great Ice Age. There are a number of cat-stones about Ireland, some much larger than the one in Shannonhall. They are of great antiquity. It is generally accepted that they once represented "markers" of areas where boundaries met. The boundary lines would have been marked by heavy wooden posts or trees. It is generally believed that cat-stones were used as meeting places or perhaps more correctly as "assembly places" at times of Inaugeration or even before battle. At the risk of error I would venture to say that the name of Cat-Stone derives from the stone in appearance resembling a crouching cat. Full marks to George Clarke and his predecessors for preserving this important monument, where others, less caring might have removed it."

So does this stone mark the boundary between Ormond and Owney & Arra? Although geographically it fits it seems unlikely as that would suggest it would have to be moved into position to fit this border.
Does it look like a cat? Well personally I never really saw the cat shape in the Cat Stone at Uisneach. However this is of similar shape to the one at Uisneach so perhaps so.

It seems more likely to me that it was utilised as a natural landmark for meetings etc. However it is not currently possible to see it from the nearby road. It should be possible to observe it from the lake and Martin suggests that it can be seen from "high Owney and Arra". This is not something I have seen myself.
Lastly are there any other instances of Cat-stones around Ireland other than here and at Uisneach? I haven't came across any other references.

Edit:

It seems likely that the name of stone here refers to the townland of Carrow just to the south of it.
Carrow comes from the Irish Ceathru which would be pronounced "Cat" ru and it is probable that is this was the "Cat" ru stone and later Cats stone. Thanks to Gillies Macbain who suggested the meaning on facebook.
https://www.logainm.ie/en/46616
It is on the border between two baronies - Lower Ormond & the half barony of Arra but I don't know if that would be enough for it to become of importance.

The First Inhabitants of Tipperary

Who was the first person to live or step foot in the County of Tipperary?

Cave on Knockadoon (Lough Gur)

I suppose first you have to look at where and when the first people arrived in Ireland?
For a long time the earliest human settlement dated in Ireland was to what we call the Mesolithic or between 8000 - 4000 BC. Traditionally the consensus suggested that a location at Mount Sandel in County Derry showed the earliest evidence of human settlement and dates to circa 8000BC.

Since then, the reexamination of a bear bone from the "Alice and Gwendoline" cave in the Burren has tentatively pushed the date back further in the Paleolithic period which basically is anything from 8000BC back to 2.6million years ago!
Dr Marion Dowd & Dr Ruth Canden and their team reexamined a cut mark on the bear bone and they suggest that it must have been made by a human. Tests on the bear bone date it to approx. 10,500BC and so human activity in Ireland has been pushed back a full 2,500 years older than previously thought. For more on this find see here.

Picture from original 1903 excavation

Mesolithic remains have been found not to far away from Tipperary. At Hermitage on the banks of the Shannon at Castleconnel a settlement and burials were found. Could Mesolithic people have followed the river to enter into Lough Derg and onwards into Tipperary? Also at Lough Boora in Offaly further evidence of Mesolithic activity was discovered.

A cave site at Killuragh near Cappamore yielded evidence of Mesolithic settlement again near a river, this time the Bilboa River which rises in Tipperary near Kilcommon.

The excavation report for the cave at Killuragh is very interesting, from archaeology.ie;

"Killuragh Cave was first excavated in 1993 (Excavations 1993, 51-2). A new excavation was carried out at the site in 1996.

Several related reasons necessitated further excavation.

Material from both the original explorations and excavation of the cave system had been left in the vicinity of the cave and had in the course of time weathered down. In August 1994 the landowner, Mr Benny O'Neil, recovered archaeological material from the surface of the spoilheap and, realising its significance, removed the soil to his farmyard, where he meticulously examined it over a period of time. He recovered a further number of artefacts, including flint and pottery. The area outside the cave was also examined by Mr O'Neil in conjunction with Mr R. 0 Floinn of the National Museum, at which point a flint blade and more pottery were recovered.

During September 1994 Mr O'Neil began to recover microliths from the soil and informed the National Museum. After a visit by the author and Ms M. Cahill (National Museum), Mr M. Kelleher was employed to sieve the remainder of the spoilheap. Further artefacts, including a microlith and a fragment of pottery, were recovered, as well as beads and other objects of uncertain age.

In late 1995 radiocarbon dates were obtained for three human bones which had been submitted from the 1993 excavation. These indicated that at least two of the human bones present in the cave dated from approx. 8000 bp, while a third individual dated from approx. 4700 bp. The first dates were obviously associated with the microliths, which in Ireland tend to date to 8000 bp or earlier, while the later date would be associated with the two hollow scrapers which Mr O'Neil had found.

With the realisation that the cave and possibly its exterior had contained significant concentrations of archaeological material from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, it was decided that some of the problems might be resolved through further excavation. This was subsequently undertaken with the financial help of the National Monuments and Historic Buildings Service and the National Museum of Ireland. The purpose of the 1996 excavation was to ascertain whether any material or any traces of settlement remaining outside the cave showed signs of working its way into the cave. It was also hoped to establish whether any in situ deposits had survived within the cave in areas which were accessible to the excavators.

Platform outside the cave
As it was quite common for extensive occupation to take place outside cave entrances, it was decided to investigate three areas in the general vicinity of the cave. Trench 1 (2m x 2m) was placed on a platform below and to the west of the entrances. Trench 2 (2m x 1m) was placed on a flat terrace above Entrance 1. Trench 3 (1m x 1m) was placed on top of the limestone knoll which contained the caves.

While Trenches 1 and 3 produced little of significance, Trench 2 produced occasional flakes of flint, although there was little evidence of extensive prehistoric settlement in the general area. It was noted, by the presence of nineteenth-century glass and ceramics at a significant depth, that deposits in this area had been subjected to considerable disturbance. Since the excavation was completed, during general clearing of rubbish on the terrace, Mr O'Neil has found a chert scraper in the topsoil.

Entrance 1
It was apparent that much of the material from the earlier investigations was in a very weathered condition. As this suggested that material may have been washed into the cave, a residue of deposits at the base of the entrance passage was investigated. This revealed a fissure, approx. 4m long and 0.2m wide, containing up to 0.4m of deposits. Embedded in these deposits were several human teeth, a microlith and a flint blade. Cinder-like material was found in the upper deposits. There are indications that a large slab of rock partially, and probably deliberately, blocked the junction of the fissure and the cave. Work in the outer area of the entrance has so far produced no traces of in situ deposits which appeared to be clearly prehistoric. While modern ceramics were found close to the surface, nothing of recent significance was found at any depth. In the outer entrance to the fissure a concentration of dog bones was found beneath a layer of stones.

Entrance 2
Work within the mouth of the cave entrance consisted of the removal of deposits which had accumulated in the very recent past. Further investigations with a small trench suggested that most of the silt deposits in the outer area of the cave are sterile. These had been partially eroded away as a gully cutthrough a basal silt.

A small test-trench placed immediately outside Entrance 2 produced a flint flake from its upper levels, while a sherd of prehistoric pottery was found in what was a localised area of material derived from the earlier investigations. In this area concentrations of stone and soil filled the outer entrance. One fragment of iron was found within the stony deposit, as was a fragment of red deer antler. One human bone was found embedded in the uppermost portion of the same stony deposit. Where the stones were completely removed a compact orange basal clay was exposed.

The cave system
Investigation of the cave system itself identified two areas where some deposits had survived.

Immediately opposite the point where the fissure entered the cave a small pit was found to have cutthrough a gully, which in turn had disturbed an earlier pit. These features were cutinto the underlying compact orange clay which forms the floor of the cave in this area. Although the fill of the later pit contained a microlith, the occurrence of a horse bone in the earliest pit suggested that the entire sequence was created after 4000 BP. This complex also contained quantities of animal and bird bone in variable condition, including burnt material and fresh bone. The earlier pit contained a portion of a human jaw in a relatively fresh condition, while the gully contained fresh bones and two heavily stained lower limb bones of giant deer.

In a second area, in line with Entrance 2, a large concentration of bones was recovered from loose soil in an alcove created in a niche in the cave wall. This material, which included a portion of a jaw of a large dog, hare and young pig bones, was in a relatively fresh condition. A giant deer phalanx was found adjacent to the underlying clays and may have derived from them. It was clear, however, that most of the bones had occurred in the uppermost layers of silt in the alcove. Excavation in this area did not expose the compact orange clay previously encountered on the floor of the main cave. Instead it would appear that in this area the clay had been eroded away, with several layers of sand and silt subsequently accumulating against the surviving clay floor in the main area of the cave. As noted earlier, the brown earth containing the bones in the alcove postdate these accumulated layers.

Since the completion of the excavation several samples have been submitted for radiocarbon dating in Oxford. These include: horse bone from pit, approx. 3000 bp;human bone from pit, approx. 3800 bp; human jaw from 1993 excavation, approx. 5450 bp; pig bone from alcove, approx. 3300 bp; dog mandible from alcove, approx. 3900 bp; human tooth from entrance fissure, approx. 5700 bp; dog bone from entrance to fissure, approx. 4900 bp.

In the context of these and other dates, and given the very limited extent of in situ material, one can only speculate on the sequence of events at Killuragh Cave. As the human bones were frequently found out of context and as there was no association between individuals, it is virtually impossible to establish how many individuals belonged to each period at Killuragh. The discovery of a few flint flakes stratified above modern pottery and the recent find of a chert scraper from a similar context suggest that some, if not most, of the area adjacent to the cave has been disturbed since prehistory.

Several possible phases can now be identified, many of which may have been initially associated with activities on the knoll at Killuragh.(1) Ritual activity in the early Mesolithic, associated with two or more human bodies. This phase may have been associated with one or more composite implements containing microliths.(2) Ritual activity associated with the final stages of the Mesolithic, represented by the radiocarbon dates, probably from different individuals.(3) Neolithic activity associated with at least one individual, and a possible placement of the dog at the entrance to the cave. Two hollow scrapers found by Mr O'Neil may have been associated with this phase.(4) Bronze Age activity in which the only deliberately placed offering (?) seems to have been a human jaw in the pit at the rear of the cave.(5) There may have been a later phase of activity which could have been associated with some form of metalworking.

It seems probable that no real settlement activity was associated with Phases 1 and 2 and it is possible that much of this material was washed in from outside. The Neolithic phase may be a product of activity within the cave itself, while it is probable that much of the Bronze Age phase is associated with the cave. Unfortunately, without a very costly programme of radiocarbon dating many of the issues cannot be resolved, and even with such a programme there is no guarantee of success.
Peter Woodman, Dept. of Archaeology, University College, Cork."

This leads us on to other discoveries in caves and a find in a cave at Annagh just over the Tipperary border from Newport. The finds here seem to date to the Neolithic but show the potential of caves for the finding of human remains.

Tountinna from the road below.

An interesting legend relating to early human habitation in Ireland is linked to Tipperary and the hill of Tountinna near Portroe in North Tipperay. Tountinna translates as "Hill of the wave" or "Wave of Fire" and in the Dinnshenchas (lore of places) it is recorded as where Fintan "the wise" was interred.
Fintan mac Bóchra in the invasion myths is meant to have accompanied Noah's granddaughter Cessair to Ireland before the Biblical flood. He was the only person in Ireland who survived the flood by turning into a salmon and hiding in a cave on Tountinna known as Fintan's Grave. He lived for 5,500 years and became an advisor to many of the later kings of Ireland such as the Fir Bolg king Eochaid mac Eirc. No cave has ever been found on Tountinna to my knowledge and I understand the local geology does not aid the formation of a cave. It is possible that rather than a cave, the likely megalithic structure known as the Graves of the Leinstermen is Fintan's Grave.

Lake on Tountinna

Notwithstanding the fact that there might be no cave on Tountinna, the point that I want to make is regarding caves in Tipperary and the potential for early human finds within them.
With the amount of highland in the county which is not regularly walked, there is likely to be a number of unexplored caves in the county. To my knowledge I don't think there is even a list of caves in the county? Even ones that are know could house previously unrecognised lithics or other signs of inhabitation.
So a list of locations of caves in the county would be a good start to finding the oldest habitation site in Tipperary.