Megalithic tomb - passage tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

Located in a small clearing on top of and around the middle of the N-S ridge of Mullyash Mountain. Folklore associates it with a princess who unfortunately died in a battle between her husband and her father (IFC: Schools Manuscripts (942) 353-4: https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes ), and the cairn was also a centre for Lughnasa celebrations (MacNeill 1962, 161-3). This is a circular cairn (diam. of base 16m; H c. 2.5m) with a kerb of battered drystone walling (at N: H 2m) NNW-E-S but the edge of the original cairn is obscured by collapse elsewhere, and cairn material has spilled over the wall all around. Immediately W of the centre is a modern depression (diam. 3m; D 0.5m). A second inner tier of drystone kerbing is intermittently visible on the summit and there might be an entrance obscured in the cairn at W (Desmond 2000). According to Shirley (1879, 513) 'a cairn was opened … in 1816 and human bones and an earthen bowl were found' at Knocknaneen. As no known cairn exists now in Knocknaneen townland, which is the townland immediately to the N, this may refer to the Mullyash/Tavanaskea cairn. A standing stone (MO020-029----) c. 850m to the SSW in Tavanskea townland was associated with it in the Lughnasa celebrations, but the stone is now lying prone in forestry.

This is a National Monument in state guardianship (NO. 564) accessed by forestry roads, and it is on the Monaghan Way, a sign-posted walking route, for which see this web-page accessed on 13/02/2018: http://blackwaterregion.com/to-do/walking/monaghan-way-walk/

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revision: 26 February 2018

References

Shirley, E.P. 1879 (Reprint 1988) The history of the county of Monaghan. London. Pickering.

MacNeill, M. 1962 The festival of Lughnasa. London. Oxford University Press.

Desmond, S 2000 A tomb with a view. Archaeology Ireland, vol. 14, No. 1, 50-1.