The Tipperary Antiquarian

The Mound from the shoreline Two of my interests came together in the rediscovering and recording of a possible burial mound in the Castletown Arra area of Tipperary between Portroe & Ballina. While working through deceased local historian Mikey Joy's archives I came across reference to a place known as the Sally Point in the townland of Townlough Lower. Initially I always thought of Townlough as being up in the "hills", I didn't really realise that the townland stretched all of 2kms down to the lake. It was described as a mound where there was some folklore related to fairies interfering with workers at harvest time. With the scanning work continuing with this large archive of material I didn't think too much more about it but slowly I think I turned it over in my head. I knew that the meaning of the name Townlough was "Tuaim an Lacha" or "Burial Mound by the Lake" and this had always bothered me, what tomb / burial mound was it...

Copyright - OSI I was looking back over some notes I took about possible archaeological features mentioned in the Irish Schools Manuscripts. One was a Danes bed in Lackabrack near the Silvermines."There is a Danes bed in one of Kennedy's fields in Lackabrack. A Dane was coming home from selling eggs. She was asked to take the shortest road she could so she jumped into Kennedy's field and she broke her leg in the fall. She died in that spot and was buried there. That is called her bed where she was buried. The previous owners of the field "Coghlans" ploughed around it and immediately they all got sick. The bed consists of two stones at the sides, one at the head and one at the foot." I wonder could this be a description for the megalithic structure that is just on the townland boundary between Baurnaglanna / Lackabrack. It is described on archaeology.ie as follows "There is no recognisable ancient feature at the position indicated on the OS 6-...

It is 16 years since I last climbed the Mauherslieve Mountain and I'm well overdue a return visit. On top is a large cairn which is likely to be a passage tomb, making it only the 2nd passage tomb in Tipperary. From archaeology.ie "Described in the OS Name Books (1840) as a large heap of whitish stones on the summit.. Under which it is said there is a cave or cellar in which a great number of the neighouring people took refuge in the time of the rebellion... it is not known when this cave was made in the moutain... the entrance to it cannot be seen as it is covered with the large stone above mentioned".  The exact meaning of the word Mauher Slieve Mountain is not definite. It is sometimes translated as the Mother Mountain but I'm not 100% sure if this is accurate. The local pronounciation of it is different to the how "Mau her" is pronounced in Irish. If we see Tempan's paper linked below (Two Moumtain Names, Slieve Felim and Mauhe...