Madden Moments: Cnoc an Mhóicléaraigh

Monday, November 6, 2017

Cnoc an Mhóicléaraigh

an update to Mocklershill

Maigh gCorbáin/Magorban
An Trian Meánach/Middlethird
Tiobraid Árann/Tipperary

The last family townland we visited in Sept 2017 was Mocklershill. Well, kind of sort of. We found no signs for the townland, but the GPS brought us here. The weather cooperated, giving a sense of the true beauty of the area. Mocklershill sits near the eastern end of the Golden Valley just a few kilometers from the Rock of Cashel and the town below it.

The Rock of Cashel is the traditional seat of the Kings of Munster, in use from at least the 5th century AD. The oldest building on the site dates to about 1100 AD.

View of Hore Abbey

Sitting so close, it seems likely the Dunn family would have visited the ruins of Cashel through the years.

Mocklershill was in the parish of Killenaule, the town of Killenaule today is further from Mocklershill than Cashel, but as the crow flies, and as man was likely to travel in the 1830s Killenaule was closer.

Looking towards Mocklershill from Rock of Cashel

The church in Killenaule today was built about 1860, so it was not in place when the Dune family was baptised. According to the parish website a church located there in 1754 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary was T shaped with a thatched roof. The website doesn't indicate whether the church was on the same grounds. The burials in the cemetery all seemed to be after the new church was built.