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| © John Gilroy |
I was reminded recently about a standing stone near Tipperary Town that was reputed to have been part of Mogh Ruith's "Rowing Wheel".
I first came across a reference to it in John Gilroy's book "Tlachtga - Celtic Fire Festival" (which was published in 2000) and went to look for it a few times around 2008.
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| © John Gilroy |
In his book he says on pg 80 about the "Rowing Wheel" (he calls it a "Flying Wheel") "O'Curry tells us that it was finally destroyed at the Battle of Sollyhead about three miles west of Tipperary in or about the year 941AD. One part of the Flying Wheel remains as a curiously sculpted stone pillar in the townland of Dromline, outside Tipperary town."
He also includes a photo of the stone which is included here above.
At the time I would have only had Discovery OS maps and I searched around the townland of Dromline for any standing stones (There were none marked I believe). There were two stones in the nearby townland of Knockballynoe and while looking for those, I spoke to a farmer near there who thought there was a stone in "Kavanaghs farm". I also emailed the author at the time about it but didn't hear anything back.
Knockballynoe Standing Stone / Menhir – The Modern Antiquarian.com
In 2023 I have a lot more tools available to me than just boots on the ground. I went back to Gilroy's book and he gives a reference to O'Curry's work. It is slightly incorrect but he seems to be referring to "Lectures on the manuscript materials of ancient Irish history" by O'Curry which is available online here.
I did a search within it and found the paragraphs relating to Tipperary in it. On pg 402/ 403 it says
"As to the first prediction, that is, the coming of what is called the Brat Baghach or Flag of Battles, it is evident enough that this was to be a fleet of the Danes or Northmen, who were to be broken against the pillar-stone of Cnámhchoill. Now Cnámhchoill was an ancient wood situated near the present town of Tipperary ; and the history of the pillar-stone which stood in it, as it is handed down to us, is shortly this :- Mogh Ruith, the Archdruid of Erinn, having, as we have seen in a former Lecture, exhausted, the druidic knowledge of the best masters in Erinn and Scotland, travelled with his daughter into Italy, where they put themselves under the tuition of Simon Magus, and assisted him in his contention with the apostles. And it was with their assistance that Simon was said to have built the Roth Ramhach, or "Rowing Wheel", by means of which he sailed in the air, to show that his miraculous powers were greater than those of the apostles. The Druid and his daughter (whose name was Tlachtga) returned home afterwards, the daughter carrying with her what remained of the materials of the Rowing-Wheel, which appears to have consisted of two pieces of rock, one of which she set up in Forchairthinn (somewhere in the neighbourhood of Raith Chúmhaill (Rath Coole, I think, in the present county of Dublin), and the other at Cnámhchoill (in Tipperary). These rocks or pillars, it was said, retained their shape of the destructive influence of the "Rowing Wheel", as every one who looked at them was struck with blindness, and every one who touched them, with death. The reason, we are further informed, why this fearful Rowing Wheel, was to pass with destruction over Europe in the latter times, was, because there was a pupil from every nation in Europe at the school of Simon Magus, assisting him in the contention with the Apostles (see same APP.). Now the three events predicted were here appear to me to have occurred in the years 941, 979, and 1096, and were, I am very sure, well known historical facts at the time that this poem was written.
The first, the destruction of the Rowing Wheel, was, I believe, the great battle of the wood of Salchóid (or Sollyhead, about three miles to the west of the present town of Tipperary), near enough to Cnámhchoill for the verification of a post-prophecy."
So it says explicitly that parts of the "Rowing-Wheel" was 'set up' at Cnámhchoill. "the daughter carrying with her what remained of the materials of the Rowing-Wheel, which appears to have consisted of two pieces of rock, one of which she set up in Forchairthinn (somewhere in the neighbourhood of Raith Chúmhaill (Rath Coole, I think, in the present county of Dublin), and the other at Cnámhchoill (in Tipperary)."
When I was conducting other research on Holy Wells in Tipperary I came across the name Cnámhchoill in relation to a Holy Well in the townland of Springhouse.
Today Cnámhchoill seems to be made up of the townlands of Corrogemore, Corrogebeg and Cleghile (according to Flynn in his paper from 1913 - Ancient mounds and earthworks near Tipperary Town. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 3, no.1, 5-21. (Available here) They are just to the west of the townland of Dromline (The small townland of Knockfobole is between Dromline and Cleghile).
This area seems to have been very important in antiquity and was a border place often defining where the Diocese of Cashel and Emly and the larger Ormond and Desmond met (see page 10 of Flynn's paper).
In the townland of Corrogemore on the Historic 25" Maps are the following
"In Dinneen's dictionary (1927) 'Coirthe' means a stone, particularly a memorial stone and 'Tlachtgha' means 'a seat of early rights'. In the 1970s the graveyard was incorporated into the adjacent quarry and at that time the standing stone was broken and pushed into the SE edge of the graveyard."
Unfortunately as this aerial photo (below) of the same area shows today, I'm not sure if that stone is still in place. It is close to what looks like a very busy quarry and things like this have the habit of going missing in those kind of situations. The inspection by the NMS was carried out in 2014 so hopefully it is.
The above description doesn't sound like the picture / area that we have of this standing stone that was included at the very top of this article from Gilroy's book "Tlachtga - Celtic Fire Festival".
I wonder could the picture be another part of this broken standing stone that was maybe removed elsewhere for safe-keeping?
The name Cnámhchoill is fascinating and is likely to come from "Wood of the bones". There is also a ridge in Cleghile known as "Hill of the Skull" and so this whole area is fascinating (See TS067-122001).
Is all this mythology connected? I don't know. You could also argue, I think, that the area around Cnámhchoill could be some kind of inauguration landscape for local kings. The standing stone known as "Coirthe Tlachgha" or "the stone of a seat of early rights" sounds like that to me, along with the mounds and its border location, could have been part of an inauguration landscape.
The mythology surrounding Mogh Ruith is confused - he seems to span a number of different time periods. Was the identification of the stone at Corrogemore with the Mogh Ruith story based on the similarity of its name with that of Mogh Ruith's daughter Tlachtga?
What was the "Rowing Wheel" that could travel through the air and unleash mass destruction meant to represent? More questions than answers.
However there are two avenues for further research, firstly to see if the broken standing stone at Corrogemore near Tipperary Town is still there. Then to see if it is the same as the one in John Gilroy's book. If it isn't is there another part of the "Coirthe Tlachgha" somewhere in the neighbourhood?
Whether this stone is part of Mogh Ruith's "Rowing Wheel" or a stone linked to an inauguration landscape, both are fascinating and may even be interlinked. The later inauguration landscape could possibly be trying to use the prestige of being linked to this ancient mythology.
Please note that the lands of Corrogemore etc are private property and permission must be obtained before accessing.
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