Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Ritual site - holy tree/bush
Lismahon, County Meath, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Lismahon
- County
- Meath
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Monument Bush
- Latest-edition OS map
- Monument Bush (Site of)
- Coordinates
- 53.46220, -6.54804
- SMR number
- ME044-035----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1799 "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Situated on a level landscape and on a small NE-SW roadway c. 1km SW of Batterstown village. A bush, described as the ‘Monument Bush’ in italic script is depicted in the roadway on the 1835 edition of the OS 6-inch map, but it had been removed by the start of the next century as it is described as the site of the monument bush on the 1908 edition. According to the OS letters of the 1830s funerals were carried in procession around the Big Tree in Rathregan and the Monument Bush, but there was no explanation of the name (Herity 2001, 114). In the folk tradition it was regarded as a Mass bush where Mass was celebrated in Penal times (IFC Schools’ Collection vol. 0687, P 316). The roadway with its banks and hedges is still slightly wider at this point.
Compiled by: Michael Moore
Date of upload: 9 December 2021
References
Herity, M. (ed.) 2001 Ordnance Survey Letters: Meath. Dublin. Four Masters Press
IFC Schools' MSS: Irish Folklore Commission Schools' Manuscripts. Department of Folklore. University College, Dublin.
Nearby in the register
- Moundunder 1 mi
- Field systemunder 1 mi
- Moated siteunder 1 mi
- Fontunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.