Ouch, ouch and ouch again! said the fool as he struggled through upended sideways spruce and burly briars. Its a wonder these days I have any skin left on my knees and shins. I started from the forestry entrance at
RavnRk (R90294 66782) and toddled along uphill to
A (R90538 68028) where a rough but managable push through the trees brought me out to open bog and the heathery summit cairn.A rest there for a few minutes taking in the views of the Shannon and North Tipperary hills and in the distance the Galtys,Knockmealdowns and Comeraghs. The North Tipperary Archaeological Inventory mentions this cairn
"Situated on the summit of Cooneen Hill with panoramic views in all dircections. A circumlar cairn (base diam. 8.7m N-S x 10.3m E-W; top diam. 5.1m) sitting on a natural knoll which continues to descend to S. The cairn (H 0.8-1.6m) is covered in moss and heather with small stones protruding. Kerbstones defining the top of the cairn at S. The interior is flat with a flat, with a slight drop below the encircling kerb. Large flat boulders in the interior may be lintels although three or four are loose."
A word of advice though, descend the way you ascended from the coordinates at the track end above lest you lose your epidermus as I did.
On the way down to your right you might make a short detour to
E (R89750 67868) to see the Foilnamuck wedge tomb.
Again the North Tipperary Archaeological Inventory says
"Situated on gently sloping boggy ground on the lower slopes of Cooneen Hill. The remains of a gallery, 4.6m long, survive. A septal-stone, partly embedded in a field-fence, marks the SSW end. Three contiguous stones remain on the more northerly side of the gallery. Beyond the easternmost of these there is a small set stone of uncertain fuction. There are four sidestones on the S side of the gallery. Two are alongside on the SSW and the other two, which are smaller examples, stand apart from each other towards the NNE. There is a thin slab outside the junction of the former pair. This supports one end of a roofstone the western orthostat on the N side of the gallery. Outside the latter orthosat there is another, apparently the lone survivor of a close-set outer wall. A decrease in gallery height and width towards the NNE is indicated. (De Valera and Ó Nualláin 1982, 82, No. 3)"
Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/558/comment/4548/
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