SELECTED MONUMENTS IN
COUNTY WICKLOW

Place-names in italics refer to listed entries.

Athgreany: Stone Circle
N 930 032
Sheet 56

2.5 km S of Hollywood and visible 175 metres E of the road to Baltinglass, this is probably the best-known of the Middle Period "Leinster Type" of stone circle, which derive from the British type of circle at Ballynoe , county Down. Known as The Piper's Stones because of the single outlier which is, according to legend, the petrified piper with the petrified ring-dancers. The circle of fourteen stones - some of which are boulders, and others which are pillars up to 1.8 metres high - is about 28 metres in diameter.

~ 9.6 km SSE are other similar, but more chaotic, circles at Castleruddery (S 925 937), 8 km NE of Baltinglass village.

~ 6.8 km E of Baltinglass village (N 938 892) is another multiple-stone circle at Boleycarrigeen , fairly well preserved and enclosed in a circular earthen embankment. Eleven out of the original seventeen or eighteen stones survive.

Baltinglass: Passage-tombs
S 885 892
Sheet 61

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On the top of Baltinglass Hill, close to Baltinglass village, approached from a narrow by-road to the NE of the hill, this large complex has a massive surrounding wall - which is modern. A large cairn some 27 metres in diameter, robbed for wall-building, still retains most of its internal features. The site comprises remains of 3 small passage-tombs built at different times and partly-overlying each other, plus two single-chambered tombs. In the circular chamber of the latest passage-tomb (III) is a large stone basin decorated with a double-armed cross within a cartouche. Some of the roofstones of its narrow passage survive. There is a beehive-shaped chamber which the excavator considered contemporary with Tomb I (largely overlaid by Tomb II, a central chamber surrounded by 5 side-chambers, whose gallery is overlaid by Tomb III), and a ruined kist which is at least as recent as Tomb III.

~ 4.8 km S by E of Baltinglass village, in Broughillstown , to the N of Broughillstown House and 80 metres E of the main road to Tullow, is a grooved standing-stone 1.5 metres high, which, like that at Ardristan , belongs to the Carlow-Wicklow-Kildare group.

~ 7.2 km ESE of Baltinglass village, in front of Humewood Castle, is a prostrate stone 1.5 metres long, decorated with cup-and-ring designs.

~ 7.5 km NE of Baltinglass village is Castleruddery stone circle.

~ 15.5 km NNE of Baltinglass village is Athgreany stone circle.

Baltynanima: Petroglyphic boulder
O 170 123
Sheet 56

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B y the far hedge of a field to the S of the by-road from Togher/Roundwood to Lough Dan, dug up from the field and placed among other boulders along the hedge, is a stone 1.2 metres long and about 38 cms high, with 14 cup-marks on its upper surface, ranging from 10 to 11.3 cms in diameter and up to 7.6 cms deep. One is surrounded by a ring, and a pair has a partial ring. There are also wide, almost parallel, grooves. Two other similar stones have been reported to have been found in adjacent fields.

Moylisha: Wedge-tomb
S 930 675
Sheet 52

9.5 km SE of Tullow and 2.5 km S of Aghowle Romanesque church,approached up a laneway and then across two fields beside a clump of trees, this monument is unusual in that its main chamber widens towards the back, together with the outer walling, so that the wedge shape is reversed. The usual portico or antechamber is demarcated by a septal slab. This tomb resembles many in the North of the island.

1.2 km W by N of Enniskerry and 1.6 km S of Killegar 12th century Christian site with interesting cross-slabs, close to a farm lane running N from the road to Glencree, this tomb is picturesquely sited under a small tree. It may be a large megalithic kist, with a capstone 1.6 metres long supported by 2 long slabs. The two end slabs have been displaced.

Seefin: Passage-tomb
O 085 170
Sheet 56

On the summit of Seefin hill, best approached from the Kilbride (South) side of the hill, through about 200 rising metres of heather, the cairn of this massive tomb (24 metres across and 3 metres high) is surrounded by a massive kerb. From the N side a narrow passage, 7 metres long, leads through an imposing entrance into the roofless chamber. This is shaped like a 'Cross of Lorraine' with five recesses, two of which are marked by sills. One of the surviving granite corbels near the entrance has a decoration of five lines like a hand or ship. Two of the orthostats of the right-hand side of the passage are decorated with concentric lozenges. An equal-armed cross on one of the roof-stones is probable Early Christian - and the tomb has probably been breached for two millennia.