Home
Visits For June 2012
Monu-Mental About Books

Blakestown Upper : Rock Outcrop

CountyWicklow
Grid RefN 960 072
Longitude6° 33' 58.94" W
Latitude53° 6' 24.33" N
ITM east480366
ITM north584435
Nearest TownBallymore Eustace (4.5 Km)
OS Sheet56
UTM zone29U
UTM x449041
UTM y5761192
Hide map  (N.B. Google Maps & GPS readings are slightly out of sync - position is approximate)
Show inline map (by Google Maps)

Visit Notes

Sunday, 21st December 2003

If anything in Ireland should be called a "Druid's Altar' then the large, flat-topped earthfast rock to the north of Blakestown Upper (County Wicklow) certainly deserves the title. This si a real proto-altar, which forces you to stand behind it and face west towards Slieve Bloom on the horizon.

Just 50m or so SE and slightly up the hill from this amazing stone are two recumbent stones, both of which appear to have been shaped. They both look as though they are fallen standing stones , one of them having broken in half when it fell.

There are other stones around here that seem significant too, including a possible avenue that includes the proto-altar and these two fallen stones.

The whole of this slope needs to be properly surveyed.

Standing stones, also called menhirs or monoliths, are the most simple of megalithic monuments. They are exactly what they say, a stone that stands with one end set into the ground. Being simple in form does not make them simple to understand, for they have served several purposes over time. Some were placed to mark burials, others were probably erected to mark boundaries or travel routes, the purpose of others is uncertain, but it may well have been ritual.

Standing stones can vary enormously in size from a under 1m tall to over 4m. Some have been purposely shaped (see Stone Of Destiny (County Meath)) and some must have been chosen purely for their shape (see Ballyvatheen (County Kilkenny)). Most standing stones are dated to be from the Bronze Age, but some are clearly older, especially those associated with passage tombs such as at Knowth (County Meath) and Loughcrew - Corstown (County Meath).

Others have been re-used in later times (see Kilnasaggart (County Armagh) and Breastagh (County Mayo)), perhaps to try and capture some of the powers of the old gods or to legitamise a claim to land.

Click Thumbnail to View Full Size Image

____

All Sites Visited On 21st December 2003    « Previous Site    Next Site »

Like this monument

Marked Sites

Random Gazetteer

A Selection of Other Rock Outcrops

About Coordinates Displayed

This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide.

Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate.

Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies.

The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out.

UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system.

ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps.
Valid CSS Valid HTML
Page loaded from cache: (Generation time: May 23 2013 12:42:01.)
Top of page | Feedback | About this site
© Copyright Tom FourWinds 2001-2013