Multivallate Ringforts in Tipperary

 

Bivallate (purple) and Trivallate (Yellow) ring-forts in the North Tipperary area.

I've also included the Barony boundaries and it is interesting how the Trivallate ring-forts seems to concentrate in the barony of Upper Ormond.

Bivallate (purple) and Trivallate (Yellow) and Multivallate (Red) ring-forts in the South Tipperary area.

I've also included the Barony boundaries. I don't think anything jumps out as dramatically in the South except that maybe there are fewer bivallate ringforts. This may be because of agricultural practices or it may just be in how the descriptions of each was recorded (ie North & South Tipperary surveys were carried out at different times when the county was split for administrative purposes). The Southern descriptions may not be as explicit as the North Tipperary ones. Another difference is that the South includes 2 "ringforts" with 4 or more rings (marked red). In theory they should be top of the political / social hierarchy.

The map is based on a search of the descriptions of all ring-forts in the county in the Sites & Monument Record for the words - "vallate", "two" & "three".

I reviewed all of these and removed the ones that weren't applicable (eg univallate in the description). It is far from perfect as I noted that for example Rathurles - Trivallate ringfort just to the northeast of Nenagh isn't included because none of the above search words were in the description of the ringfort in the SMR.

Why is this important?

It is generally accepted that the more banks and ditches the monument has, the higher its status and is thus linked to the social status of its owner. The chief of the tuath is thought to have resided in the multivallate examples while the lower grades lived in the univallate.

 

Nenagh Friary and Town Walls

Linking Nenagh Friary with the Historic Quarter of Nenagh. 

The entrance to Nenagh Friary was recently repaired and it got me thinking again about linking it up with the "Historic Quarter" of the town around Nenagh Castle. 

One suggestion I had is to use the possible route of the town walls as a way to lead people from Nenagh Castle to the Friary following a kerb or cobble stone that would outline the potential footprint of the town wall of the town. 

The route would go south from the Castle to the Friary and then west as per the map below.

The below is an idea of how this kerb could look. 

From Dun Laoighre Rathdown report - Non-habitable Protected Structures

At the Friary there is a green area on which some information boards could be put and I think some kind of "centre-piece" could be installed here as well - perhaps a stone statute like the one below of which something is hinted at in some old records of the Friary.

The OS Letters describe - 'three fragments of a monumental stone, having raised on it the figure of a warrior in armour…composed of limestone' which was located near the NE inner corner. This tombstone is no longer visible."

Credit: Störfix

Or even something carved from wood like a Frianciscan Friar in his robes (or both to tie the towns Norman and Gaelic past). 

From http://artparks.co.uk

The town wall "route" would lead people past the Kenyon Street graveyard and railway station area and back into the central core of the town. 

O'Sullivan Beare and Latteragh

 

From - The Story of Latteragh - A Souvenir Booklet (1982)

"After St. Odhran, the character which figures most in local tradition is Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare who on the 31st Dec. 1602 left Glengariff with 1,000 followers on his ill-fated retreat to the O'Rourke territory in Leitrim. On the 5th Jan having come through Hollyford, Upperchurch & Templederry, O'Sullivan Beare and his retinue arrived in Latteragh. Philip O'Sullivan, a 1st cousin of Donal Cam,who was sent to Spain as a refugee with Donal's young son and educated in Spain, wrote a detailed account of the retreat in "Historiae Catholicea Compendium" publish in 1621. I quoteL 

"He halted in the village of Latteragh, and threw his men into a rather small church and it's enclosure. There was in this village a fort from which he was annoyed the whole night with the firing and salliers of the garrison. He withstood the attack from the fort and monentarily awaited with drawn swords prepared muskets and couched pikes, a large crowd of the enemy assembled not far from the camp; the men going on sentry and to sleep in turns. 

It was now the 6th of January when at dawn, a storm of red-hot balls blazed on O'Sullivan as he advanced. 

This was indeed a daily salutation with which the enemy honoured him, a farewell as they drew off at night, a greeting as they turned up in the morning."

From Latteragh, O'Sullivan had to make his way to the Shannon. Which route the column followed is speculative - whether down the valley through Kilnafinch or upwards towards Toomevara - neither history not tradition offer any enlightenment. 

The local folklore relating to O'Sullivan Beare is, oddly enough, at variance with the "official" story. Local tradition has it that O'Sullivan spent the night on the moat in Garrane and many will tell you that the natives (as opposed to the de Mariscos) were friendly; or perhaps later, more patriotic generations changed the story slightly in it's telling - who knows?"

If you see this link on the moat at Garrane it has other associations with O'Sullivan Beare.