A West Cork Ireland Altar Rock Megalithic Wedge Tomb
A West Cork Ireland Altar Rock Megalithic Wedge Tomb located between Schull and Goleen, County Cork.
From Wikipedia: Wedge tombs of this kind were built in Ireland in the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, c. 2500–2000 BC.
Cremated burials took place in 2000 BC and pit burials c. 1200 BC. Around AD 200 a pit was dug and filled in with fish, shellfish and cetacean bones, presumably as a ritual practice.
Despite the name, there is no evidence that the altar was ever used for sacrifice. It was used as a Mass rock in the 18th century AD. A holy well stood across the road.
It was excavated in summer 1989 by Dr. William O'Brien and Madeline Duggan. Material found included cremated human adult bones, a tooth, worked flint, charcoal, periwinkles, fish bones and limpets. The entrance was aligned ENE–WSW, possibly with Mizen Peak (Carn Uí Néit) and maybe to catch the setting sun at Samhain (November 1).
Altar Wedge Tomb, Mizen Peninsula, West Cork.
Structure erected at the end of Stone Age, around 3000 - 2000 B.C.
Megalithic Tomb - Wedge Tomb Near Schull West Cork
On shoulder (now forested) between two ridges of outcropping rock, on SE side Knockaphuca mountain. Badly damaged; comprised gallery (L c. 5m; Wth 0.8m) aligned ESE-WNW. Possible to distinguish outer walling and number of buttress stones to N and S of gallery. Three displaced roofstones partly cover E half. No clear indication or cairn or mound. (Roberts 1988, Ch. 4, No. 24; O Nualláin 1989, 135).
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
The tomb is located at the base of a cliff, facing into the wall, but at a slight angle. It is a small example of a portal tomb, but packed with interesting features. The chamber is sunk into the bedrock and appears to have a paved floor. The capstone rests on the portal stones and a secondary capstone which lies flat over the chamber. The doorstone has a large chunk missing from it, but whether this is origianl or subsequent damage I can't say.
There are wonderful views to the sea and the area around the tomb is studded with wild and weird rock formations. One of these rock outcrops - the only tall, pointed one - stands on the axis of the tomb, some 100m to its rear.
A stream rises from within the bedrock just below the site and then wanders down its own marshy valley. It could well have been this spring that attracted the builders here in the first place.
This is a wonderful tomb and could be made very easy to access. It should certainly be treated with a lot more care.
Megalithic Tomb - Wedge Tomb Near Schull West Cork
On shoulder (now forested) between two ridges of outcropping rock, on SE side Knockaphuca mountain. Badly damaged; comprised gallery (L c. 5m; Wth 0.8m) aligned ESE-WNW. Possible to distinguish outer walling and number of buttress stones to N and S of gallery. Three displaced roofstones partly cover E half. No clear indication or cairn or mound. (Roberts 1988, Ch. 4, No. 24; O Nualláin 1989, 135).
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
The tomb is located at the base of a cliff, facing into the wall, but at a slight angle. It is a small example of a portal tomb, but packed with interesting features. The chamber is sunk into the bedrock and appears to have a paved floor. The capstone rests on the portal stones and a secondary capstone which lies flat over the chamber. The doorstone has a large chunk missing from it, but whether this is origianl or subsequent damage I can't say.
There are wonderful views to the sea and the area around the tomb is studded with wild and weird rock formations. One of these rock outcrops - the only tall, pointed one - stands on the axis of the tomb, some 100m to its rear.
A stream rises from within the bedrock just below the site and then wanders down its own marshy valley. It could well have been this spring that attracted the builders here in the first place.
This is a wonderful tomb and could be made very easy to access. It should certainly be treated with a lot more care.
Altar Wedge Tomb near Goleen West Cork
Altar Wedge Tomb and Mass Rock
Goleen, Co. Cork
…it is popularly believed that ‘men were executed or sacrificed.’ This idea may be due… to the name of the monument, and to the fact that in the covering stone which rests diagonally against the ruined structure there is a deep semicircular indentation, like the place for the thumb in a painter’s palette, which perhaps gave rise to the notion that in this rested the victim’s head previous to decapitation. …There is a tradition current in Cork that ‘nothing will grow under these altars.’
William C. Borlase, 18971
From the time of its construction in the late Stone Age the Altar Wedge Tomb, with its dramatic waterfront location on Toormore Bay, was the site of ritual practices that continued in the eighteenth century when the tomb was used as a “Mass Rock.” The tomb is one of a dozen similar structures in the Mizen peninsula. Located approximately 7 kilometers (4 miles) west of Schull, the tomb’s gallery opening was oriented to point directly at the cone of Mizen Peak 13 kilometers (8 miles) across the bay.
Mass at Mass Rock
A 1999 Mass at the Tawley Mass Rock (Co. Sligo) might have occurred at the Altar Wedge Tomb in the 18th century.
There is no physical evidence that this tomb, or any Irish tomb for that matter, was ever used for human sacrifice. Yet the legend persists here, and elsewhere where “Druidical sacrifice” is part of the local lore.
When the 3.5 m (11.5 ft) long tomb was excavated in 1989 archaeologists discovered cremated human bones which were dated to c. 2,000 BCE. The tomb may be as much as a thousand years older than that. There is evidence that it was reused in the Bronze Age (c. 1,250 – 550 BCE) with shallow pits dug inside the tomb that may have been where food offerings for the ancestor spirits were deposited. Much later (c. 124 – 224 CE) Celtic peoples dug a pit that was filled with sea shells and bones of other marine creatures, including whales. These may represent a continuation of the much earlier votive practices at the site.2
Illustration from sign at the tomb. (credit: OPW)
The Iron Age pit may be evidence of the wedge tomb’s incorporation into the larger mythological landscape centered around Mizen Peak. This 232-meter prominence is described as the legendary mountain Carn Ui Néit, where Balor of the Evil Eye was defeated by the sun god Lugh, and beheaded:
From this, we can understand why the wedge tomb at Altar held a special significance for Iron Age people in the locality. This Bronze Age monument was drawn into their religious beliefs, possibly as a burial place of ancestors, but more probably as an abode of supernatural powers and portal to an otherworld now conceptualised as Tech Duinn [Land of the Dead]. The marine food offerings made here in the Iron Age may have been linked to this idea of an otherworld beyond the sea, the latter regarded as the genesis of all life in early Irish mythology.3
Across the road from the wedge tomb is a Holy Well that traditionally was identified as “belonging to the altar.”4 It can be seen within the virtual reality environment on this page. Molly Camier, born in 1918 in a now-abandoned farmhouse near the well, said in 1998 that her mother believed the well was “from the time of the Druids, used for putting out the fire on the sacrificial altar.”5
The Holy Well was likely an important part of the clandestine Catholic rituals performed when the tomb was used as a Mass Rock during the repressive years of the Penal Laws (seventeenth – eighteenth centuries), when the religious practices of the majority population were outlawed. Catholic priests, forbidden to openly conduct the sacraments, were forced to minister to their flocks in hidden and remote locations, often using the flat surfaces of megalithic tombs as “Mass Rocks.” In doing so they brought another generation of sacred practice to a place where ritual observance began five thousand years before.
Altar Wedge Tomb near Goleen West Cork
Altar Wedge Tomb and Mass Rock
Goleen, Co. Cork
…it is popularly believed that ‘men were executed or sacrificed.’ This idea may be due… to the name of the monument, and to the fact that in the covering stone which rests diagonally against the ruined structure there is a deep semicircular indentation, like the place for the thumb in a painter’s palette, which perhaps gave rise to the notion that in this rested the victim’s head previous to decapitation. …There is a tradition current in Cork that ‘nothing will grow under these altars.’
William C. Borlase, 18971
From the time of its construction in the late Stone Age the Altar Wedge Tomb, with its dramatic waterfront location on Toormore Bay, was the site of ritual practices that continued in the eighteenth century when the tomb was used as a “Mass Rock.” The tomb is one of a dozen similar structures in the Mizen peninsula. Located approximately 7 kilometers (4 miles) west of Schull, the tomb’s gallery opening was oriented to point directly at the cone of Mizen Peak 13 kilometers (8 miles) across the bay.
Mass at Mass Rock
A 1999 Mass at the Tawley Mass Rock (Co. Sligo) might have occurred at the Altar Wedge Tomb in the 18th century.
There is no physical evidence that this tomb, or any Irish tomb for that matter, was ever used for human sacrifice. Yet the legend persists here, and elsewhere where “Druidical sacrifice” is part of the local lore.
When the 3.5 m (11.5 ft) long tomb was excavated in 1989 archaeologists discovered cremated human bones which were dated to c. 2,000 BCE. The tomb may be as much as a thousand years older than that. There is evidence that it was reused in the Bronze Age (c. 1,250 – 550 BCE) with shallow pits dug inside the tomb that may have been where food offerings for the ancestor spirits were deposited. Much later (c. 124 – 224 CE) Celtic peoples dug a pit that was filled with sea shells and bones of other marine creatures, including whales. These may represent a continuation of the much earlier votive practices at the site.2
Illustration from sign at the tomb. (credit: OPW)
The Iron Age pit may be evidence of the wedge tomb’s incorporation into the larger mythological landscape centered around Mizen Peak. This 232-meter prominence is described as the legendary mountain Carn Ui Néit, where Balor of the Evil Eye was defeated by the sun god Lugh, and beheaded:
From this, we can understand why the wedge tomb at Altar held a special significance for Iron Age people in the locality. This Bronze Age monument was drawn into their religious beliefs, possibly as a burial place of ancestors, but more probably as an abode of supernatural powers and portal to an otherworld now conceptualised as Tech Duinn [Land of the Dead]. The marine food offerings made here in the Iron Age may have been linked to this idea of an otherworld beyond the sea, the latter regarded as the genesis of all life in early Irish mythology.3
Across the road from the wedge tomb is a Holy Well that traditionally was identified as “belonging to the altar.”4 It can be seen within the virtual reality environment on this page. Molly Camier, born in 1918 in a now-abandoned farmhouse near the well, said in 1998 that her mother believed the well was “from the time of the Druids, used for putting out the fire on the sacrificial altar.”5
The Holy Well was likely an important part of the clandestine Catholic rituals performed when the tomb was used as a Mass Rock during the repressive years of the Penal Laws (seventeenth – eighteenth centuries), when the religious practices of the majority population were outlawed. Catholic priests, forbidden to openly conduct the sacraments, were forced to minister to their flocks in hidden and remote locations, often using the flat surfaces of megalithic tombs as “Mass Rocks.” In doing so they brought another generation of sacred practice to a place where ritual observance began five thousand years before.
Altar Wedge Tomb near Goleen West Cork
Altar Wedge Tomb and Mass Rock
Goleen, Co. Cork
…it is popularly believed that ‘men were executed or sacrificed.’ This idea may be due… to the name of the monument, and to the fact that in the covering stone which rests diagonally against the ruined structure there is a deep semicircular indentation, like the place for the thumb in a painter’s palette, which perhaps gave rise to the notion that in this rested the victim’s head previous to decapitation. …There is a tradition current in Cork that ‘nothing will grow under these altars.’
William C. Borlase, 18971
From the time of its construction in the late Stone Age the Altar Wedge Tomb, with its dramatic waterfront location on Toormore Bay, was the site of ritual practices that continued in the eighteenth century when the tomb was used as a “Mass Rock.” The tomb is one of a dozen similar structures in the Mizen peninsula. Located approximately 7 kilometers (4 miles) west of Schull, the tomb’s gallery opening was oriented to point directly at the cone of Mizen Peak 13 kilometers (8 miles) across the bay.
Mass at Mass Rock
A 1999 Mass at the Tawley Mass Rock (Co. Sligo) might have occurred at the Altar Wedge Tomb in the 18th century.
There is no physical evidence that this tomb, or any Irish tomb for that matter, was ever used for human sacrifice. Yet the legend persists here, and elsewhere where “Druidical sacrifice” is part of the local lore.
When the 3.5 m (11.5 ft) long tomb was excavated in 1989 archaeologists discovered cremated human bones which were dated to c. 2,000 BCE. The tomb may be as much as a thousand years older than that. There is evidence that it was reused in the Bronze Age (c. 1,250 – 550 BCE) with shallow pits dug inside the tomb that may have been where food offerings for the ancestor spirits were deposited. Much later (c. 124 – 224 CE) Celtic peoples dug a pit that was filled with sea shells and bones of other marine creatures, including whales. These may represent a continuation of the much earlier votive practices at the site.2
Illustration from sign at the tomb. (credit: OPW)
The Iron Age pit may be evidence of the wedge tomb’s incorporation into the larger mythological landscape centered around Mizen Peak. This 232-meter prominence is described as the legendary mountain Carn Ui Néit, where Balor of the Evil Eye was defeated by the sun god Lugh, and beheaded:
From this, we can understand why the wedge tomb at Altar held a special significance for Iron Age people in the locality. This Bronze Age monument was drawn into their religious beliefs, possibly as a burial place of ancestors, but more probably as an abode of supernatural powers and portal to an otherworld now conceptualised as Tech Duinn [Land of the Dead]. The marine food offerings made here in the Iron Age may have been linked to this idea of an otherworld beyond the sea, the latter regarded as the genesis of all life in early Irish mythology.3
Across the road from the wedge tomb is a Holy Well that traditionally was identified as “belonging to the altar.”4 It can be seen within the virtual reality environment on this page. Molly Camier, born in 1918 in a now-abandoned farmhouse near the well, said in 1998 that her mother believed the well was “from the time of the Druids, used for putting out the fire on the sacrificial altar.”5
The Holy Well was likely an important part of the clandestine Catholic rituals performed when the tomb was used as a Mass Rock during the repressive years of the Penal Laws (seventeenth – eighteenth centuries), when the religious practices of the majority population were outlawed. Catholic priests, forbidden to openly conduct the sacraments, were forced to minister to their flocks in hidden and remote locations, often using the flat surfaces of megalithic tombs as “Mass Rocks.” In doing so they brought another generation of sacred practice to a place where ritual observance began five thousand years before.
Gleninsheen Wedge Tomb The Burren Co. Clare
This fine little wedge tomb dated around 2500 BC lies on the limestone uplands of the Burren in north-west Clare, a few kilometres south of Ballyvaughan.
Wedge tombs are named for their wedge-shaped plan: they are narrower and lower towards the rear. In this region excellent large slabs are readily available on the surface crag, so many wedge tombs like the one at Gleninsheen are built with a single large slab forming each side and a single great roof-stone. This gives a special neatness to these monuments especially as the tops of the sidestones are chipped to a straight line.
The entrance of Gleninsheen points roughly towards the west, while the magnificent Poulnabrone dolmen (which can be seen going further south on the R480, on the same side of the road), as most other Irish portal and court tombs, are generally built facing to the eastern half of the compass.
It is worth mentioning that on the same area there are over seventy megalithic tombs. Within a few hundred metres of Gleninsheen are two other wedge tombs: one is not very well preserved (east of the pictured grave), while the other is still covered by its cairn (to the north-east).
In 1932, in a rock crevice near this area a farmer found the famous Gleninsheen Collar: a 31cm gold gorget, probably a neck ornament, dated to about 700 BC and now on display at the National Museum in Dublin.
Lough Gur, Grange Stone Circle and Wedge Tomb
Recently visited this site in LLimerick and was blown away.any suggestions for audio?
St. Patrick's Day in Schull, Co Cork
#YMCA #digitalmedia summary of 2016 St. Patrick's Day parade in Schull, Co Cork
Footage by: Jacob Goode, Jesse Wells, Jozi Hurden-Fouché & Fabian Boros
goleen's elvis!
Dave O' Connell (DOC) blasting out (trying to) the winner takes it all during the pub talent competition at Goleen Festival!!
Toormore-Silent.wmv
Silent version
Compilation of Megalithic Neolithic Dolmen
A dolmen (/ˈdɒlmɛn/) is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table), although there are also more complex variants. Most date from the early Neolithic (4000–3000 BC). Dolmens were typically covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. In many instances, that covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone skeleton of the burial mound intact.
It remains unclear when, why, and by whom the earliest dolmens were made. The oldest known dolmens are in Western Europe, where they were set in place around 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it. They are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these remains date from the time when the stones were originally set in place.[1]
Irish Man stuck in megalithic tomb
#ireland #kerry #stonefort #ringfort #tunnel #tightsqueeze #funny #megalithic
Cork to Kenmare Ireland or Eire Amateur home movie 1950's. Aerchive film 37707
Cork to Kenmare Ireland or Eire Amateur home movie 1950's
A journey by railway on a steam train
Cork city, the river and bridges, donkey carts. Scenery with ruined castles, coastal scenes.
Clonakilty, Ballinascarthy, Timoleague, Courtmacherry, Morleys Bridge kenmare railway stations. Bantry and Valentia
Viaduct, a boat trip, a line of horse drawn gypsy caravans, more horse carts and pretty villages.
Railway Project
Life in Timoleague during the time time of the West Cork Railway