The Tipperary Antiquarian

I came across a great resource this week on the Tipperary Libraries website. They have begun to digitise a number of historical documents including surveys done by the Irish Tourism Association in the 1940s. This body was the first state body set up to promote tourism in Ireland. They went around the country checking facilities and antiquities that they could promote to a local and international audience. http://tipperarystudies.ie/digitisation-project/ I was running through the Toomevara survey and found this interesting folklore relating to a standing stone I had visited in the past. I have often heard the legend of the Devil taking a bite out of the mountain range it was set in and spitting it out or dropping it where the Rock of Cashel was located. However I have never heard this variant to the story and hopefully people will find it interesting. From the Toomevara Survey "The "long stone" is a nine feet high standing stone at a cross-roads in the townland...

When I lived down this way I used to visit the Motte at Knockgraffon regularly. So much so that like a lot of places close to home, I don't have that many photos of it. I think it is accepted that a small percentage of Mottes built by the Normans may have been earlier monuments that were converted into Motte & Baileys. Why spend all that time building a large mound when there is an existing one there? Also it has the compound effect of saying to the native population that we have taken what is yours. I think it is very possible that Knockgraffon Motte is one of those. There is evidence is that it may have been an inauguration mound of the Kings of Munster at one stage. See here for more information on that http://www.theapplefarm.com/knockgraffon.htm Also from http://www.libraryireland.com/[...]yAncientIreland/III-XVI-17.php "Knockgraffon.--Another noted Munster palace was Cnoc-Rafonn, now called Knockgraffon, three miles north of Caher in T...

It has taken me quite a few attempts to find this enigmatic site. Known by a variety of names, the Tomb Stone or Capstone of the King of Leinster is a large boulder by the roadside in the Arra Mountains looking down into North Tipperary, Galway & parts of Offaly. In my blog piece about the Graves of the Leinstermen , TJ Westropp mentions his Uncle's gamekeeper telling him about this monument and as luck would have it the great grand-daughter of this man (Paddy Hourigan) contacted me via facebook to tell me that what I thought was the capstone was actually incorrect. She also recommended contacting a relative of hers who lives in the area. Over the weekend with his help I was finally able to find it. The picture below will give you an indication why it was hard to find! In my mind as I had passed here so many times and not seen it, I thought it must be on the inside of the ditch but it actually right beside the road. I trampled so...

I posted a photo of a map from Rev Gleeson's "The History of Ely O'Carroll Territory" on my facebook page a few weeks back that I happened to come across. If you look at Lough Derg (left of map) and examine its eastern side you will see the name "Danes". Now every other name on the map is of a significant family that was a minor lord of that area. Why was Danes put there? Pretty much every other name on the map is either an O or a Mac and there are no variants of the name Dane prominent in that particular area of Tipperary today that I know of. This got me thinking about the Vikings and Lough Derg. You would imagine that as the Vikings were mariners and used to that lifestyle that perhaps a site at Lough Derg might have appealed to them to settle at some stage? I did a small bit of research online and came across this very interesting paper which looks at this very idea. http://www.vikingage.mic.ul.ie/pdfs/lecture_vikings_on_the_river_shannon.pd...

H ow Lough Derg got its name. ... "Long ago in the time of the Fianna a huge monster lived in Lough Derg. He had caused great havoc in in the neighbourhood and no one could approach the lake except when he was asleep. He had also eaten about thirty people. When Fionn heard this he made up his mind to kill the monster. He then got the Fianna ready and set out in the direction of Lough Derg. When they arrived the monster began to splash the water until they were all drenched. They then waited until he was asleep and they went to the Lough again. They made no noise this time. They were not there when be began to yawn. This gave Fionn an idea. He got his spear ready and waited until he began to yawn again and with one mighty leap he jumped into the monsters mouth. He stuck his spear down the monsters neck and before he could close his mouth he was standing on the shore. The monster beld to death and his blood reddned the lake. After this it was know as Lough Dearg which changed t...