I wasn't expecting to find this stone. Liam Price mentions it in his 1959 article in the JRSIA, but it doesn't appear in the Wicklow Archaeological Inventory. Anyway, as we are finding out, the latter does not mean a thing!
The stone is right where Price said it is. And, to make things easy, it's right beside the road on the verge. The stone is incorporated into the roadside bank with two sides exposed. It is around 75cm tall and almost square in plan.
There is a single bullaun around 25cm in diameter set centrally into the top. Next to this, which makes it's omission from the Inventory even more amazing is an OS Benchmark. This means that the stone is used as an Ordnance Survey Datum Point - i.e. the location & height of everything nearby is measured from this stone!
To the east, running around to the southeast, is Carrick Mountain. Roughly at the southeast there is a bulbous lump on the hilltop, which may give some kind of Winter Solstice sunrise alignment from here.
From Ashford head west towards Laragh on the R763 for 2.5km and take a left turn. Go straight over the crossroads after 800m or so and continue for 3.5km to the next cross road. Turn left here and head south for 600m. You will see a cream bungalow come into view on the righthand side of the road. Just after you first see this there is a gate on the righthand side of the road. Park here. The bullaun stone is 20m back up the road on the opposite side.
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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. |