Stone circle

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on reclaimed grassland on S facing slope of rising ground in upland area. Boulder Burial (TN038-004) alignment located 300m to N of site of Stone circle. All that remains of the stone circle is a deep pit (int. dims. 0.8m x 0.8m x D 1.4m) lined with concrete surround (T 0.2m) which is level with the existing ground surface with a triangular-shaped recumbent limestone slab (dims.L 1.2m; Wth 1m; T 0.3m) acting as a cap stone lying over the concrete lined pit (see attached photo). Described by Rynne (1969, 90) as a small stone circle (diam. 4.5m) of seven stones (H 0.3m) with an outlier to the E. The recumbent slab now acting as a cap stone may be one of the orthostats of the stone circle described by Rynne in 1963. Inside the pit there is a small slab which may also have been one of the original orthostats. The land has been reclaimed and reseeded with grass which may have resulted in levelling of the stone circle. When the stone circle was being levelled the land owner may have come across a deep pit inside the circle which he may have then lined with concrete on top of which he placed one of the original orthostats of the circle. In Rynne's description of the site he mentions some irregularities in the ground inside the stone circle and suggested it may have been the remains of a cairn. Could the concrete lined pit be the remains of a cist which may have been converted into a concrete lined well during drainage of the field? The 1963 photo of the field shows it as a rough wet marshland which has subsequently been reclaimed.

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008