Standing stone, Timoney Hills, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Stone Monuments

Standing stone, Timoney Hills, Co. Tipperary

Scattered across the undulating pasture of a Tipperary estate, more than two hundred upright stones of red sandstone and conglomerate rise quietly from the ground, arranged in no obvious pattern that anyone has yet convincingly explained.

One of them, catalogued in the 1930s as stone 5B2, no longer has any visible surface remains at all. It has simply vanished into the field, leaving only its entry on an old map to confirm it was ever there.

When the Inspector of National Monuments surveyed the area in 1934 to 1936, he counted 221 stones still standing across the two adjoining townlands of Timoney Hills and Cullaun, noting that they ranged from roughly three to six feet in height, with the larger ones averaging around five feet. He described them as a most remarkable group, while acknowledging they appeared to follow no particular arrangement, save for one stone circle identifiable in Cullaun. A later map produced for the Archaeological Survey of Ikerrin, published by Stout in 1984, recorded 245 stones in total, but noted that 70 had already been removed, along with five cairns that have also since disappeared. That steady attrition makes the question of origins all the more difficult to resolve. The stones sit within the landscaped grounds of Timoney Park, the former estate of the Parker-Hutchinson family, and that setting has led some to question whether all of them are genuinely ancient monuments or whether some were introduced during the ornamental landscaping that was fashionable among improving landlords in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. No firm answer has been established, and the doubt itself has become part of what makes the site so peculiar.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Standing stone, Timoney Hills, Co. Tipperary. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement