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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - holy tree/bush

Rathronan, County Tipperary South, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - holy tree/bush, Rathronan, County Tipperary South, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Rathronan
County
Tipperary South
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
The Bell Tree
Coordinates
52.38405, -7.69981
SMR number
TS077-062----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1882 · Ireland (southern half). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1904 · Sheet 13. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Indicated on the 1904 ed. OS 6-inch map as 'The Bell Tree', a name which could be a corruption of the Irish 'bile' meaning holy tree. The OS letters (1840) mention 'a large ash tree in full bloom, measuring eighteen feet six inches [5.63m] in circumference at the base, about one hundred paces to the east of it [i.e. the 'Fort of Rath Ronain' TS-77-061----]'. According to Lucas (1963, 23), 'a local writer in 1949 referred to [it] as the "bella tree" and described [it] as in decay'. There is no trace of this tree which according to local information was felled in 1958, before which it was a popular meeting place known as the 'bella tree'. A young ash was planted in its place. There are a variety of trees in this location, all of which appear to be young.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 26 August 2011

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Ritual site - holy tree/bush in Tipperary South All County Tipperary South records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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