rock

This background of old collectable glass-bottles placed on a thick stone window-sill seemed just the right one to use on an article about "old things".

Older than just old things, Rockchapel parish has many pre-historic remains dating back more than a thousand years before Christ. The purposes they served, some information on some structures and where they can be found on farms in the district are covered on this web site.

In the Rockchapel parish these pre-historic remains have survived because of certain superstitious beliefs which surrounded the objects. Most people no longer accept these beliefs and the future existence of some relics of the past is threatened by reclamation of land and excavation.

RINGFORTS usually have a rough circular area 45 to 180 feet in diameter. Mostly surrounded by a bank and fosse (trench). They were built by farmers to protect themselves, families and stock, from raiders and wild animals. The bank was built by piling up inside the fosse, the rocks and soil, obtained by digging the latter.

Stakes were sometimes placed on top of the banks. Some had 2 ditches, one of which would be filled with water.
Ringforts only had 1 entrance and inside there would be several round shaped houses for people.
They were used from 500 BC to 1300 AD.

Although this photo here used as an example, is not in Rockchapel, it is a common site in various parts of Ireland of the remains of a ringfort .
In Rockchapel parish, farms belonging to Paddy O'Connell, Timmy Hartnett, Davie Murphy, David Walshe, Paddy O'Carroll, and Billy T.B. Murphy have remains of old ringforts.

Ringforts seemed to have been built in commanding positions, within site of each other and with good views. Some ringforts contained souterrains or underground passages with the entrances well hidden. They could have been used as underground cellars, or a place to hid at the time of an attack.

It is thought that from the time of Viking invasions of Ireland, from about the 8th century, the need for souterrains as places of refuge increased.

A FULACHT FIADH consists of a mound of burnt, brittle stone, usually occuring in marshy areas or near the banks of streams. They are ancient cooking pits dating back to the early bronze age and used for a long time, up to Elizabethan times. Large stones or sandstone was collected and then heated on an open fire. When hot they were put into a trough made from hazel planks and sealed with mud to make it waterproof. The red hot stones heated the water in the trough. About 100 gallons of water could be brought to the boil in a half hour.
The meat could then be cooked in this water.

Once the meat was cooked and the water cooled, the burnt and broken stone and waste from the fire was thrown out over the low wall of the site to form a mound of waste material.
(Left pictured, as an example, is the remains of a Fulacht Fiadh) which gives an idea of what they looked like.)

Old remains could look like a high grassy mound beside streams today.

Sketch (right) shows one with a lot of stone fragments in a crescent shape. Some were more like a horse-shoe shape , some in a kidney shape and all were mounds of stones surrounding a wood or stoned lined trough and always near a good water sources of marshy boggy ground.

Fulachta fiadha can be seen on the lands of the following farmers in the Rockchapel area:
David Murphy, Charles Broderick, Martin J.M. Murphy, Tom Buckley, Mossie Fitzgerald, Billy T.B.Murphy, Connie O'Carroll, Kathleen Collins, Mary M.J.Curtin, Neilius T.C.Curtin, Dan Lane, Robert McAuliffe, and Paddy J.Morrissey.

DALLAN or GALLAN is a standing pillar of stone in a field. They may have been erected to mark the grave of a person, and so serve the purpose of a modern-day gravestone. Some served as boundary marks and may have been used as sun dials or scratching posts for cattle.
Another suggested for their use was that Gallans mark the sites of notable events, or could have been associated with religious or superstitious practices.

Seen in many fields around the Irish countryside, 2 examples are pictured here. Some have symbol inscriptions said to be a writing called Ogham.

This writing is usually found in the form of short parallel lines cut along the edge of the stone.
They date from about AD 300 and seem to be the earliest form of writing known in Ireland.

Dallans similar to these examples shown, can be seen on the Rockchapel farms of Dan Lane, Tom Bailey, Nellie Deely, John Buckley, Jer. J. Curtin, Billy T.B. Murphy

Ogham was a 25 letter alphabet inspired by Ogma, god of eloquence. It was carved and read from bottom to top or right to left. Its origin is not certain but may have been adapted from a sign language. It is understood that the names of the main 20 letters are also the names of 20 trees sacred to the druids.
A lot of these stones can be seen throughout Co Cork and Co Kerry.

A group of standing stones arranged in one or more straight lines is called a STONE ALIGNMENT. They are probably associated with ancient worship or may have been part of a fence.
Examples can seen on the Rockchapel lands of Billy T.B.Murphy, Dan Lane and Jack Roche.

As it is a mystery to what the purpose of Stone Alignments was, it has been thought they could have some astronomical signifigance. They usually consist of 3 or more stones in a straight line.

A TUMULUS was a burial ground built of earth. During the famine, there were so many people dying that separate graves could not be made for everyone, so the dead were buried in mass graves.

Another type of burial ground is a CAIRN.
This is recognisable as a large stone heap on some farmland.
Charbhaigh (Bocaura) is crowned by such a Cairn and this would probably indicate that a person buried there must have been a person of importance in the community -- a king, a chieftain or an outstanding warrior.

The Mass Rock overlooking the village.

Heading down from Mass Rock around the corner to cross the stream back to the village.
The buildings bear the name T.C. Curtin

part of the Rockchapel Graveyard. (2001)