The north church is boring and late. The south church is 7th or 8th century with ante and a fabulous 'megalithic looking' doorway. The north church is aligned east to west, but the southern one is aligned to the Galtee Mountains to the north-east, which from here look like a recumbent female!
The two churches are in an enclosure (again showing the age of the site) formed by a 1.5m high stone wall.
Early reports of six cursing stones inside the north church proved to be out of date, but they are on the site .... somewhere.
A little theory: I think the stones used to make the doorway of the 7th Century church may have originated in the avenue (now a 4-poster stone circle) on the hillside above.
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. |