Situated in the beautiful Ravensdale Forest, a mixed woodland that rises towards the Black Mountain, stands this unusual stone circle. This stone circle is interesting as there is some debate whether it is the genuine article or a 18th century Folly. What is certain is the discovery or the construction of the circle are both ascribed to Lord Clermont. What primarily caused confusion is that multiple stone circles were found at the same time, two of which were believed to have been situated on Lord Clermont’s property, one at Dromiskin and perhaps this one at Ravensdale. From what I can ascertain a lot of the doubt appears to come from H.G Tempest in an article in the Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and History Society from 1942 (Vol 10, No.2). I will go through the three reasons he gave for this in his article. Firstly he states, “its smallness – 22 feet by 13 feet internally”, personally I feel this does not stand, I have visited several stone circles around the country that are smaller in size than the one at Ravensdale, Uragh in Kerry and Kealkill in Cork to name just two. His second reasoning is due to the ‘insecure setting’, this insecure setting into the ground could be for a multitude of reasons ie how they were found, were they reset when found if fallen? Lord Clermont said the entire circle was covered with soil so some resetting must have taken place. His third reason is that they are not mentioned in 1837 Ordnance Survey Maps nor in Ordnance Survey letters, I am very confused by this one as he mentions the date on which it was discovered by Lord Clermont as 1840 earlier in the article which obviously negates this reason.
A Doctor Francis Crosslé had previous stated in the same journal that he had been brought by Lord Clermont to see the stone circle in 1906 who told him that he had found the circle when he tripped over the top of one of the stones when out shooting. He told Crosslé that he uncovered the largest stone and then the rest, “which the lapse of centuries had covered over with the exception of the top of the one stone at the lower margin of the circle”.
There are many sources that seem to confuse this circle with several others and also the ongoing belief that it may have been created as a folly due to how the stones are positioned. In regard to this confusion even the National Monuments Website is uncertain stating it may be either. The truth of the matter is probably lost to antiquity however what is certain is that the setting in which it is situated is truly fantastic and Ravensdale is a very under visited woodland, possibly due to its positioning so close to the border with the north, well worth the quick pitstop if heading towards Belfast/Newry.
GPS: 54.07802, -6.34522
Thank you for introducing us to this stone circle you nicely photographed. We just came back from Stonehenge
https://fabfourblog.com/2024/11/28/stonehenge-for-free/
and we visited many stone circles in Scotland as well but we didn’t know these Irish stones. They are on our list now.
Wishing you a happy weekend
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thanks for that, very jealous you made it to Stonehenge havent been there myself yet but planning a trip for next Summer. Love the look of your blog, will have to have a good read of it over the weekend! Enjoy your weekend too.
I believe those stones are sandstone. There were megalithic monuments on top of two adjacent hills near Bridge-a-Crin, a place called Killin Hill. They were destroyed and rendered into lime by a man named Dickie in 1824. The cairns were surrounded by a circle of standing stones, made of sandstone (a rare rock type in north Louth) and useless for making lime.
Could those stones be the same? The circle in Ravensdale was constructed a few years after the destruction of Killin Hill.
Wow Alan that seems to make alot of sense as there are so many conflicting stories but what you are saying could be the most likely history behind the stones ie to have them repurposed into a folly. Where did you get this info out of interest? Thank you for your contribution.
Ed
Hi Ed, I’ve been a little fascinated by Killin Hill since I found out it was the “Úrchnoic Céin Mhic Cháinte” from the poem and song by Peadar Ó Doirnín. There is virtually nothing told about the hill and its monuments locally anymore (I am originally from Dundalk, now living in Kildare), but prior to their destruction in 1824, there was a passage tomb, cairn and standing stones on one hill and a “cromlech” on the other. The carvings on the stones were said to rival Newgrange, making their destruction even more unforgivable. The monuments were illustrated in “Louthiana” by a guy called Wright and are mentioned in various archeological publications over the years – a bit of Googling will show them.
Céin, or Cain, was the father of Lugh and according to the legend, was killed and buried there by the sons of Tuiren.
Hi Alan, thank you for the info, found a link to the book on archive.org which I’ll link HERE for anyone who is on the site and wants to read it. I’ll have a good gander at it over the weekend cause it must hold some serious knowledge considering the date of publication! That is so tragic that it lasted well into the period where these monuments and sites would have held serious interest to antiquarians etc. Other than what you mentioned around the destruction of the site by a man called Dickie do you have any other info on this? I live in Laois myself in the shadow of the Slieve Blooms and I always wonder what historical sites were destroyed up there and also what may lie beneath the soil. I guess since the plantation of Laois was the first plantation back in 1556 there must have been so much destroyed, also the fact that many of the original families of Laois went to the mountains and from there attacked the then town of Maryborough (Portlaoise) over the centuries would lead me to believe there must be more up there than the few monuments listed. Its an incredibly desolate and beautiful place.