Trinity Well

Trinity well is situated on the outskirts of Newmarket.  It is said to heal people.  A woman from Newmarket lifted her paralyzed son to the well every day. On the third visit to the well the boy walked home.  Raymond O’Sullivan, a local historian, accompanied us on our visit to Trinity Well.  We also visited the Bocaura, the Convent and Sarah Curran’s gravesite.  
We appreciate all Raymond O'Sullivan's hard work as he must find a different location every year and design work around it.  Sometimes it is hard work to get us to listen and that's why he always gives a questionnaire sheet for the day.  We have to write in the answers as we go along during the day and there's a prize for the person with the most answers correct.

By Jimmy Twomey

Ring Barrow

 

On Wednesday the 30th of May, we visited a ring barrow in Knockatoon Rockchapel. The proprietor of the field are Mr. & Mrs. Murphy, his great grandfather bequeathed the land on to Billy. It is a Bronze Age burial site; one-day Billy’s great grandfather dug up the mound and found a large urn with bones in it. People now say that he ran back to his house and went into bed and never got up again. These sites are much smaller in size than the Ring fort or fiadh and can often be difficult enough to spot in an overgrown area. None of the 26 Ring Barrows in Duhallow have been excavated. There was an overturned Urn found in the early 1900’s. It was found in a box made of slabs. There is a white hawthorn tree growing in the center of the Barrow. In the burial site you can tell if the person were large the bones would shatter if it were a mall person the bones would not shatter. We would like to thank Raymond o’ Sullivan for giving us his time to take us on the history tour  

By John Scanlon, Owen Bourke, Robert Stack, David Guiney, Kevin o’ Sullivan and Joseph Walsh

Hill Mound

 

There is a hill mound in the shape of a pin and tail located in the townland of Rockhill, near the outskirts of Rockchapel. It is one of four beautiful mounds, known as Bullacain, in Duhallow. This was the first site we saw on our history outing presented to us by Raymond O Sullivan and were extremely grateful to him for his generosity and expertise. It’s not known if the mound is natural formed or manmade, but it’s undoubtly some form of prehistoric burial site. The Locals of Rockhill used to have athletics around a pool near the mound. This pool also has a waterfall that flows into it, and is thought to have no bottom to it. There is a story attached to it and it goes by; that their was a woman bathing in the pool and seen a strange man approaching in the far distance, she didn’t recognize him so she got embarrassed and hid under the water too long and drowned. When the man reached the pool, he saw a dead woman floating in the pool, as it transpires she was his wife. That’s why he named the pool “poolateer”.

By Billy Allen, John Ryan, Seamus O Keeffe & Brian O Connor.

Old Stone House

In the late 1800’s, in the scenic County Limerick, small-scale tailors, the Barrys, were offered jobs as shepherds herding cattle by a Lady in Lake View, Oregan, America.  They took this opportunity because their business wasn’t developing to their satisfaction and wasn’t achieving its full potential.  They thought they would bring money back for themselves and their family when they returned from their journey to the outskirts of Rockchapel. 

 whose buisness wasn’t running according to plan? Mr Barry lived on the outskirts of Rockchapel. One day a woman offered him a job, herding cattle, in Lake View Origin. The reason he and his brother went to America, was to make money and invest in sheep farming, when they moved back to Ireland. He arrived in America, he noticed the land was worthless and cattle couldn’t graze on this hilly and mountainous land. He suggested to the farm owner they invest in sheep farming, so he did and the investment was a success. Sheep would graze better on this type of land, because of it being hilly and mountainous, sheep could also stick their heads between thorny bushes, whereas cattle couldn’t. When they came back to Ireland the land was affordable and so they bought plenty of it. They had also bought sheep and herded them successfully. Where they lived, The Old Stone House is now a historical site. Raymond also explained to us that, because it was built in the 1800s it was very extraordinary that it had a slated roof. We are very grateful to Raymond O’Sullivan who took us on this outing, also he gave up his day and we appreciate it.

Rockchapel Village

Rockchapel village was constructed back near the battle of Cromwell, where the warriors retreated to the hillside. They gathered around a rock to have mass and to have fairs. The official-name for Rockchapel church is St. Peters church, because he said immobile “upon this rock I shall build a church”. The church has two doors on the outside, one of the doors has an arch made out of limestone to support the very heavy bell, the other door posses two holes with a pan of holy water in each hole. The church was constructed in two different stages, but nobody alive knows, which stage was constructed first. Oddly enough the church is in the shape of a cross. When the person who built the church was building it, he went around three blocks up and all the way around. If you go there today you can still see the lines. The way Rockchapel developed was all because of the battle of Cromwell, because they all went to a certain store in Rockchapel and people began to start building there.