Montiaghroe

Stone Circles & Rows - County Fermanagh

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ What's New ] [ Scotland ] [ England ] [ Wales ] [ Europe ] [ Methods ] [ Us ]

		More Pics
		Panoramas

As can be gathered from the state of the sky in the above photo, we had weather problems during our visit to Montiaghroe. As well as sudden torrential rain cutting our visit short, days of previous rain had turned the surrounding fields into a nearly impassable bog. 
If the weather wasn't bad enough, we found that according to our GPS receiver the published locations for the Montiaghroe circles are more than a little off. 
Because of these difficult conditions, we could not cover this potentially fascinating site in anything like our usual depth, so we only have partial GPS fixes and photos :-(

The most impressive monument at the site is the three stone row pictured above, the stones here are all over a metre high, with the tallest standing at 1.9m. The row is close to the road, and is easily visible to passing traffic over the low field wall.
 35m SSE of the row are remains of a circle at H 19336 69405, there were four smallish stones in what appeared to be a short arc of the circle. In common with most of the circle stones we spotted at Montiaghroe, they were low, covered in vegetation, and virtually submerged in the bog. This site fits the published descriptions of Montiaghroe SW, but the actual location puts it at the SE of the cluster. In addition, the published map ref for Montiaghroe SW locates it 200m away, on the other side of the road!
We think that we also spotted Montiaghroe Centre, this is a large diameter circle laid out at the foot of a rise. Nearly all of the surviving circle stones here were hidden in the grass, they were not visible from more than a couple of metres away, so it was impossible to get an overview of the circle remains. On the higher ground to the NE of the circle are the remains of what looked like two or more stone rows, but there was such a jumble here that it was hard to make out the original structures.
The weather broke just as we reached Montiaghroe Centre, so we did not have time to search for Montiaghroe SE. The published accounts of this circle mention stones of nearly 2m high, and we saw nothing like this within view of any of the sites mentioned here.

There are obvious contradictions in the published locations for the Montiaghroe circles, and our own limited GPS readings confirm this discrepancy. If you are planning a visit to anything other than the three stone row, be prepared for some extensive searching.