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.

Comments

Hag Stones, are they an example of authentic Irish folklore or a neo-pagan import?

By Darkone CC BY-SA 2.0 The first time I ever heard of Hag-stones was this year. They are more commonly known as Adder stones and described on wikipedia as follows: " An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egypt ." In Britain they are also called hag stones , [1] witch stones , serpent's eggs , snake's eggs , or Glain Neidr in Wales , milpreve in Cornwall , adderstanes in the south of Scotland and Gloine nan Druidh ("Druids' glass" in Scottish Gaelic ) in the north. In Germany they are called Hühnergötter ("chicken gods"). In Egypt they are called aggry or aggri . Adder stones were believed to have magical powers such as protection against eye diseases or evil charms, preventing nightmares , curing whooping cough , the ability to see through fairy or witch disguises and traps if looked at ...

The Origins of the surname Ryan

NOTE: This is currently a work in progress and I ask for any feedback on what I have written. Ryan is one of the top ten surnames by population / number of people in Ireland. It would be nice if there was a simple explanation as to the meaning of the surname Ryan, unfortunately to my knowledge there isn't. The most likely explanation is that it goes back to a King or Chief of Idrone circa 900AD named Rian or Rien. It was around this time that the Irish began taking on surnames and it may be that it was after him his descendants began to be called, O or descendent of Rian. We are not sure how or when exactly the O'Mulryan name came about. It is likely that it means "descendent of the followers of Rian". However, this is not certain. We will see further down in this article that the genealogies suggest they are both descended from the same ancestor circa 900AD. Although other evidence does contradict this. Just what Rian means is not known for sure. Explana...

The Tara Prince, the Egyptian Princess and other alleged links between Ireland and Egypt in ancient times

I think most of us have heard the stories that originate in the Lebor Gabala Erenn linking Scota or Scotia with Ireland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scota It is a great story but the problem is when it used as fact. I few years back I first heard of the claim relating to the Tara Prince and the faience beads that are claimed to originate in Egypt. "The Tara Prince" aka Tara Boy An excavation of the Mound of the Hostages in 1955 by Sean O'Riordain uncovered a number of items within the mound (which turned out to be a passage tomb). One was a set of faience beads now on display in the National Museum of Ireland. They were associated with a skeleton that in pseudoarchaeology has been dubbed "The Tara Prince". Copyright National Museum of Ireland When I read about the claim linking him back to Egypt curiosity got to the better of me and I had to see if there was any basis in it. You can see where the claim arose in O'Riordain's paper ...

The Tipperary Antiquarian

Search This Blog