Kilmashogue
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Kilmashogue (or Cill Mochíog in Irish) is a sacred megalithic site in Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, Ireland on top of a mountain with the same name. The mountain is 1,339 feet (408 metres) high. It is a national heritage site.
It is believed the tombs date back to around 2000 BC.
The megalithic tombs consist of massive rock slabs and it boggles the mind how they actually transported them up the mountain and lifted them into place.
It is very obvious why these prehistoric men built the tombs on the top of Kilmashouge. From the top you have a perfect view over Dublin Bay (perfect for spotting unwelcome visitors). Local streams would have provided them with fresh water and the forests near by would have had plenty of wild boar, deer and rabbit.
Clay pots and bones were some of the artefacts discovered when the tombs were excavated.
Kilmashogue is placed in thick woodland about 100 metres above a car-park on the Wicklow Way. It is a ruined Wedge-tomb with cairn. Several cists were inserted into the cairn at a later date. The roofless gallery is triple-walled, and the very high sill-stone between the antechamber and main chamber is another unusual feature in Irish Megalithic monuments. Chambered cairns are found a lot in Scotland. A Standing-stone can be found to the east of the monument on the edge of a private road. 800 meters South west of the monument the ruined "Larch Hill" Portal-tomb can be found, with remnants of a forecourt, substantial remains of its cairn, and one portal-stone standing about 3 metres tall. The other portal-stone has fallen and is lying beneath the roots of a tree. The fallen capstone is a slab around 2.4 metres square.
The cairn in Kilmashogue is robbed out and flattened. Several kerb stones remain in place as does the floor of the cairn.The surrounding ditch and bank can still clearly be seen although most have been a lot deeper. The gallery walls are still evident and these are double lined, usually a style found in wedge tombs. The entrance to the rectangular chamber faces directly towards the mound at Montpelier.
People of Note The name Kilmashogue derived from the gallic "Cill Mochíog". Mochíog is now a character lost to antiquity, but is believed he once ruled as king or clan leader over the mountain when this was a lawless place far outside the pale boundary. Recent descendants or inheritance of the the title of King can now be traced to contemporaries of this title such as Lord Seamus mac Siacias, who rules with an iron fist over the region. this region now diminished from its once great stature still falls over a remarkable large area, stretching from the lowland plains and parks of the "Estate of Marley" to the north as far as the feared Dougie Pedalos or "Dougie of the shotgun toting pedalo" highlands lands to the south, its banks start to the west from the honorable "Sean of the hurl o'finnea's" land, and end on the sacred ground of stackstown to the east, where it is still forbidden to tread, as this place was erected and ruled over by the secretive and elusive "An Garda Siochana", it's grasses are believed to be sacred and anyone found treading across them are likely to be dispense immediately to the "main gate", the "main gate" being a sacred place between this world and the next.
