Maulatanavally : Stone Circle
Visit Notes
Sunday, 20th April 2003
As I was walking away from the previous site I saw a farmer in the next field and so asked him about this site. He got into his tractor, telling me to follow him, and drove up to here. What a kind man. After a little chat he showed me the best route to take to the circle. You can park right on the bend; from here walk back down the hill to the gate and then across the first field, over the low wall and then walk up to the stones.
There are just six stones left standing with a few lying around. It would seem reasonable to say that there were originally 13 stones. The axial stone is tiny, at just 40cm high. The stones may have risen in height towards the entrance stones, of which one still stands at 1.2m tall.
There is a magnificent quartz boulder occupying the centre of the circle. I don't think that this could have been an outlier that was moved here because the circle is on the top of a little knoll and any outlier would have been out of site from within the circle. Quite a few of these multiple stone axial circles have quartz blocks, so finding it there is not a surprise. Anyway, it's always good to find a lump of quartz anywhere - in a stone circle it's wonderful!
Apart from quartz, another thing I was to see a lot of during the middle part of my day was Carrigfadda mountain with a huge crucifix on the top. Obviously a large white Jesus, shining in the sun, nailed to a cross is bound to draw one's attention, but why was it put there? The mountain seemed to me to be the focus of all the many circles in this area ... was the crucifix put there because the mountain is an ancient holy mountain and the Christians wanted to either claim it or remember it?
Saturday, 9th July 2005
This is another great example of how a 'ruined' circle can still be a great circle. The petiteness of these stones and the massive quartz block in the centre are sublime. Granted if it was complete it would look as fantastic as Carrigagulla (County Cork), but not everything can be that good.
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About Coordinates Displayed
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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. |
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