Ballincurra Standing Stone

I came across this reference in an Irish Tourism Association survey of Templederry in Co. Tipperary. In the 1940s the Irish government sent surveyors around examining the tourist potential of (I presume) the whole country. They often looked at the local antiquities and I've been finding the reports really interesting. They occasionally talk about some features that aren't in the local inventory.

The below picture shows "markings" on a tall standing stone and when I saw them I thought they had the potential to be some kind of rock art. 

The stone in question is described in archaeology.ie as follows
"A triangular-shaped stone (H 2m; dims. 1.35m x 0.33m) of limestone composition, aligned on an E-W axis and tapering up to a point from E to W. There is some modern graffiti incised on stone, including initials RC and RM. No packing-stones evident though grassy tufts are growing at the base of the N side."
I didn't spot the initials on the stone but did make out some of the markings on the sketch above such as the star. 

Star and other markings on the stone

I posted some pictures of the stones on an archaeology group and they provided some interesting information regarding cut marks like these. Thanks for all their comments.
One was that as the stone is likely to be of slate that they could be much older than previously thought as markings on slate stays "sharper" for longer than on other types of stone.
Also they pointed me towards similar cut marks on other stones around the country and a possible link with kingship rights. One example is at Mullaghmast in Co. Kildare. 
I was curious about the "pock" like marks on the edge of the stone as although they look natural they also look quite weathered.

I'm not suggesting any of these for this particular stone and I would anticipate that chatting to people locally might be able to put a date on the marks.
One of the initials mentioned on archaeology.ie is RC and from the ITA survey the stone is located on the lands of Richie Coughlan so that may have something to do with it.

The stones location is very interesting, there are two bronze age hillforts above it in the hills to the north. The valley of the Nenagh river, just about 20m to the north of it, was probably an old roadway / pathway through the hills in this area. There is a coll known as the "Ormond Stile" to the west of the stone. Ormond was the old name for what was broadly the North Tipp area. It comes from Urumhain which means North Munster. Essentially I think the placement of these hill-forts shows this was an important pathway linking North & South Tipp from the bronze age and the stone was possibly a territorial marker. Interestingly enough I think it is these hills that form the natural barrier that meant the county was divided for administrative purposes in more recent times.

Looking west towards the Ormond Style

Rear of the stone

St Johns Eve in Tipperary

By Bruce McAdam from Reykjavik, Iceland - Wickerman, Archaeolink 2008, CC BY-SA 2.0,

I did a bit of a search for folklore about St. Johns Eve from around Tipperary. In many places in the west of Ireland the night is still celebrated with bonfires but it doesn't seem to have survived in Tipperary.
I found ones from Clash near Toomevara, Curraghpoor near Tipp Town and Toor near Newport.
So it shows a reasonable spread around the county.

The one from Toor is my favourite
"The custom of lighting bone-fires on St John's Eve still prevails but many of the attendant ceremonies such as throwing in a bone, etc. have fallen into disuse. At the present time people usually light a bush in the corner of each field. The doing of this is supposed to bring good luck.
Long ago people made a fire of turf on the roadside and they threw a bone into it and then danced around it."

http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922161/4857215/5016281

From Curraghpoor

"St John's Eve falls on the 23rd June and there is an old custom associated with it, which is still observed here. On that night a group of youths gather together at a cross roads and they light a bone-fire. They sit around it singing and playing music and some of them dance. They often remain on until early morning. Some people take a lighted furze bush from the bonefire and walk around the potato garden with it. This is supposed to prevent disease in the crop. Other farmers drive their cows through the embers of the bone-fire to keep them from disease."

http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922285/4867286/5022772

From Clash outside Toomevara

"We have St Johns Day the 24th of June. The people light bonfires that night. They used to light them on the hills. It was the custom in olden times. They used to light them in the fields where the crops are sown. It was a custom that the farmers used to light furze bushes in the tillage fields. There used to be big crowds around the bonfires and they used to be dancing and singing around the fires. they used to stay up all night. There was a bonfire in Ballentimple one time and there was a man burned he fell into the fire. He had to go to hospital for three weeks. There was never a bonfire there from that out. It is in the night they light the fires."

http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922138/4855968/5011432

Edit

From Foilycleary near Rearcross

"The old custom of lighting a fire on St. Johns (night) eve is still observed here and for several years that fire, around which young and old including the teachers gather, and sing and dance for a few hours, has been lit at the "Tailors Bush". In later years they make it a practice of singing Irish song and dancing the old Irish dances."

http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922083/4850671/4949783

“In Ireland each district or locality had its own customs. These old customs are handed down from our Great GrandMothers and Grandfathers.
In my district on the last Sunday in July people go off to "The Hight of Ireland and gather frohans. They also have a dance on the top of the Hill. We also light Bon Fires here on St Peter and St. Pauls night on top of the mountains and sometimes in the bogs. In the south Tipperary the people light bon-fires in the streets on the Eve of St Johns Day. They go around the night before collecting pennies for Material for the fires and the town is always in a blaze on St Johns Eve.
Unfortunately these old customs which were so simple and exciting are dying out to be replaced by the Modern Cinema.”

https://duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922190/4859520/5017923

 

“2. The driving of beasts through fire on St. John's Eve to keep away sickness seems to have visited in Charles Kickham's time. He refers to the custom in his poem, St Johns Eve" - "His cows the farmer slowly [?] drove across the blaze he knew not why".”

https://duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922237/4863219/5019977

 

 “A bon-fire is lit on St John's eve and materials is procured for it before.”

https://duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922296/4867907/5058042

 

“In this district bonfires are lighted on St. Johns Night the eve of 24th of June. This is to remind us of the miraculous preservation of St. John by Almighty God from being burned when he was cast into a cauldren of boiling oil, not even the hair of his head was injured.”

https://duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922300/4868264/5020165

 

Lough Derg & its "Monster"

You might wonder what the legend of the Lough Derg "Monster" has to do with a blog about archaeology and heritage. However I think the stories appearance in the Irish Folklore Commissions schools manuscripts qualifies it. It means the story of a monster in Lough Derg dates to at least the 1930s. 

Reading through them I found this story about the Lough Derg Monster from a school in Ennis.

"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 to Lough Derg after a while."

http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922347/4872500/5073405

I also recall reading another version of the story on duchas.ie from Newport in Tipperary and it is detailed here and I have included the text at the end of the page. (https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922159/4857068)

Growing up near Lough Derg, I never heard any folklore relating to a lake monster in the lake. As someone who had an interest in all things "mysterious" growing up and an avid watcher of Arthur C. Clarke's programmes I would have been delighted to hear that the lake had a legend of a monster. Link to the episode "Monsters of the Lakes" including 3 Irish priests in a boat on Lough Ree talking about something they saw there (from 10.40).

I knew the approximate time frame of the Irish Folklore Commissions survey was between 1937-1938. I wondered was there any other event relating to a lake monster in the news in the 1930s?

It was in 1933 that the Loch Ness Monster story broke to the world wide press. Seemingly the story was a media phenomena at the time attracting interest from all over the world  A search of www.irishnewsarchive.com shows 40 newspapers reports in Irish newspapers during the year 1933. Could this be a case of foreign folklore have influenced local Irish folklore and been recorded in the Irish Folklore Commissions schools manuscripts? If you see the story from Newport school (at the end of the page) it seems more like a story than real folklore. 

As an archaeologist friend said to me "folklore is only hearsay" and I suppose you have to be able to tell the real folklore from the made up. That said from reading the Irish Folklore Commission's manuscripts relating to Tipperary the folklore does hold up surprisingly well.

As an aside I also checked a book called "The Mystery Animals of Ireland" and it actually has a section on sightings of something in/on the lake. Sighting included one in 1961 by Lady Talbot of Malahide while fishing. In water of less than thirty feet near Bushy Island on the Mountshannon shore Lady Talbot and her gilly thought they struck something in the water which knocked them off their feet and they thought that whatever they hit "reacted".

Another sighting from 1980 was by a James Minogue who lived near Mountshannon and saw "a black hump much bigger than any appendage a creature in the lake had any business having near Red Island". Another sighting he had of it was "a black hump 3/4 foot above the surface in calm water, this time near Holy Island".

The book actually says that in 1968/69 a sonar survey was done on the lake by Captain Lionel Leslie (who it says was one of the founders of cryptozoology in Ireland) and a team of researchers and picked up a large contact of something not less than five feet long.

Do these sightings refute my claim that perhaps the folklore relating to the Lough Derg monster was due to foreign folklore influencing Irish folklore?

Was there really folklore from the 1930s relating to a "monster" in the lake or was it just exaggeration from reading newspaper stories about the Loch Ness Monster?

Postscript

Since I first wrote this in 2016 there was a great program by Jeremy Wade about giant Pike. 
In Dark Waters (below) there does appear to have been large pike up to 5ft 6" in length and up to 92 pounds in weight in the 1800s. This could certainly account for some of the sightings.

Searching For Legendary Giant Pike In Ireland | Jeremy Wade's Dark Waters - YouTube

I also had a story related to me about divers who were salvaging a sunken barge on the lake in the 1970s. While diving around it they saw what they thought were railway sleepers on the bed of the lake. When they looked closer they were actually fish and they soon got out of there! Again based on Dark Waters estimate below and Captain Leslie's survey, pike of this size could have been possible.

Some other links about creatures in Lough Derg below. 

Video from RTE archives detailing some other sightings on Lough Derg here.

Video of the Johnstown Monster about a fake lake monster, it was shot around Lough Derg here.

Folklore from Newport School on the Lough Derg Monster. 

"But many centuries before, when glorious Eire groaned beneath the iron heel of British Imperialism, Templeahollow was the scene of other desecrations, more hideous and appealing, than the most sanguinary enemies of Ireland could imagine, much less perpetrate. The destroyer, on this occasion, was a pre-historic amphibious monster, the description of which is nearly enough to terrify the reader.

Tradition says he was hydra-headed, and had tentacles like those of a giant octopus but almost a mile in length, and huge seal like flappers. He was believed to weigh a hundred tons, and his back was made of shell, like that of a tortoise. He dwelt beneath the silvery waters of Lough Derg, on the Shannon, where he used to repose by day. Although he used to lie at the bottom of the lake, his huge tentacles used sometimes spread over the banks for several hundred yards, at both sides, and if an unwary human being happened to tread upon them, these slimy organs would embrace him and drag him to a horrible doom. The tentacles when spread out, appeared like rough roots of trees, which sometimes appear above the ground, where the trees are large, and the surrounding soil shallow.
When the mantle of darkness used to be drawn over Lough Derg, and when the people of the immediate neighbourhood were deep in slumber, this hideous creature would creep from its hiding place and visit the local (gray) graveyards, root up newly made graves, smash the coffins into match wood, devour the corpses and retreat homeward when fully satisfied.
This went on for a considerable time before the people could diagnose the cause of this unnatural occurrence. They began to notice at last that these desecrations used only take place on the night of a funeral to a particular graveyard. They attributed these occurrences to something supernatural, as superstition was rife at the time, but a few men who were more materialistic than their neighbouring fellow-men decided to keep watch at once of the local graveyards, some night after a burial, and try to find out something practical for themselves They did so, and their vigil lasted until mid-night, when low and behold! Their vision encountered a sight too terrible to imagine. The approach of a mountain like creature, with its numerous heads and eyes which literally flashed fire, rooted them to the spot and caused the blood to almost freeze in their veins.
When they recovered their presence of mind, they fled in terror to their homes and related their tale of horror to their friends and neighbours, who, already infuriated by the previous happenings declared they would destroy this horrible monster, on the occasion of his next visit. But, like the mice that decided to kill the cat, when the time arrived to put this idea into practice, not one man was able to summon up courage enough to draw the first blood. A mental vision of what they had to face made them powerless.
Eventually, however, two brothers named Kelly, resolved to do what others did not do. They got two huge spears made at the Local forge and had them blessed by a priest. Despite several appeals and warnings from their friends and others to desist from fighting against such an unequal foe, they were firm in their resolution to kill the enemy or be killed themselves in the attempt.
They lay in ambush one night after a burial, one at each side of the road. When the destroyer arrived, he was attacked by one of the Kelly's who hacked off what appeared to be the monsters principal head. The infuriated monster spread out his huge tentacles in the direction of the attack and nearly crushed the heroic attacker to death, with one of them, but his alert brother was quickly to the rescue and hacked the menacing organ in many places. A crowd of neighbouring men who were witnessing the fight from far off, and who had not the courage to strike the first blow, armed themselves with sharp pointed weapons and joined in the fight, when they saw the success which attended the efforts of their brave comrades. The monster eyeing that the fight was going against him, and that he was up, against reasoning minds, and not animal instinct, sought safety in flight, but owing to his colossal size he was forced to move slowly and was badly mutilated when he reached his home in the lake, as his pursuers kept hacking and stabbing him all the time. He did not die for many days after sinking to the bottom, and the spasmodic movements of what was left of the horrible creatures body caused huge waves of foam to surge upwards, and the lake became red with his blood. It is believed that it is for this reason Lough Derg got its name, 'Derg' being a derivation of the Irish word 'Dearg' which means red.
The Kelly's were hailed as heroic after this great deed of heroism. A beautiful temple was built as an everlasting monument to their memory. It served its purpose well, for although it is now a roofless ivy-covered ruin, its situation, and its picturesque appear- ance would immediately make such an impression on the mind of the passer-by as to cause him to inquire into its history, which is indeed a proud and eventful one. (The outstanding feature of this noble deed of the brothers Kelly and the bearing it had on the name of their ruin for) Templeahollow is a derivation of the words "Teampall an Cheallaig" which means in English Kelly's Temple." 

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922159/4857068

Ballycahill Bullaun Stone

Some exciting news with the adding of a previously unrecorded bullaun stone to the Sites & Monuments Record.
I recently met local Nenagh man Tom White for a quick archaeology tour in North Tipp. Tom has a great interest in history and archaeology in the area (and further afield). However I think his real love is woodcraft and survivalism making use of the natural world around him to provide wild food, shelter, fire and water. He runs a great facebook page here. (Give his page a like, it is worth following for the great tips he gives). As such he is often out and about visiting various archaeological sites, walking the hills and has a great interest in ring-forts.
We visited a couple of interesting megalithic and natural sites around North Tipp and had a good chat about the local archaeological sites in general. We got to discussing "cursing stones" and he mentioned that there was one that he visited regularly near Capparoe outside Nenagh. The "cursing stone" was made up of smooth rounded stones and a bowl in a large rock. When I heard this I thought immediately of a missing bullaun stone in this area.
The description in the archaeological inventory was as follows "Situated on a low rise of ground in undulating countryside. A disused holy well (TN020-085001) was filled in in the late 1970s and described by a local landowner as a natural spring well with a flagstone surround and a possible bullaun stone. There is no trace of the bullaun stone (FitzPatrick 1985b, 112)." This comes from an unpublished work by Elizabeth Fitzpatrick "An archaeological survey of holy wells in the baronies of Arra and Owney, Upper and Lower Ormond."
Tom took me to the location of the "cursing stone" which is less than 500m from where the holy-well above was located. What is interesting is that it is known locally as a mass-rock and a dawn mass is held here in the past. There was a significant abbey just over 1km away from the bullaun stone and it is possible that it is linked to that settlement.

We contacted the local National Monuments Service archaeologist about this rediscovery and he was delighted to hear and visited the next day. Interestingly he thinks that it is not in fact the missing bullaun stone as I thought but a completely different unrecorded site. It is now recorded as follows:

"In grassland, situated atop ridge running E-W in upland area with good views of the surrounding countryside from W through N to NNE. Ruins of Lissenhall House located 100m to S. Spring well known as the vaulted well (TN020-100----) 270m to NNE. Holy well known as Patrick’s Well (TN020-085001-) located 340m to NE. Roughly rectangular shaped boulder (H 0.78m-0.5m x 0.97m x 1m) the surface of which slopes upwards from E to W. A deep circular hollow or bowl (top diam. 0.27m; base diam. 0.12m; D 0.14m) is located off centre close to W edge of stone. Nine smooth water-rolled stones (dam. 0.1-0.2m) have been placed into the bowl of the bullaun. The remains of two shallow circular depressions (diam. 0.16m; 0.2m) can be seen on the surface of the boulder close to the E edge. According to the ITA Survey carried out in the 1940s, this bullaun stone was used as a mass rock during penal times and was known locally as ‘Ballycahill Mass Rock’ (pers. comm. Derek Ryan). The ITA described the site as following: ‘By an old whitethorn bush, on the rim of a semi circular depression in the ground, is a roughly built table of large stones. One huge stone on top has a circular bowl-shaped depression about a foot (0.3m) in diameter which is said to have been used as a Holy water font’.
Lissenhall school recorded in the 1930s the following folklore about the locality which appears to be describing this bullaun stone; ‘On the tops of several large stones here there are small holes which fill with water. People who have warts rub them with this water are cured. The holes are known as wart wells. It is said that mass was offered on these stones in Penal days & that the holes were holy water fonts’ (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0537, Page 302)."

So I think we can all agree of how important local knowledge is in the recording of old sites and protection of new ones.
Many assume that a site is know about to "the archaeologists". Thanks to Tom White for involving me in his discovery and I'm very hopeful that we may be able to find a few more sites together.

Sacrarium at Monsea Church

One very interesting feature of this church is what is known as a "Piscina" or sometimes described as a "Sacrarium". I'll be honest and say that before researching this blog piece I actually thought a Piscina was just another name for a holy water font.
It is similar in that it is small bowl like feature. However unlike a holy water font this bowl actually has a hole in the bottom with some kind of pipe or outlet to the outside of the church. In it is poured the left over water from Mass and Martin Power (in his book on the local history of the area "Dear Land, Native Place") uses a quote to describe this practice as "What came from the earth, returns to the earth".
Wikipedia has some further information on Piscinas / Sacrariums and interestingly it states that in the Anglican tradition they are more commonly known as Piscinas while in the Roman Catholic tradition Sacrariums. Technically the Piscina is the bowl part while the drain is the Sacrarium!