Located on the upper banks of the Lingaun River, in the townlands of Knockroe, in the modern Parish of Windgap (Bearna Gaoithe) is a megalithic tomb with 2 passages dating from 3500 BC. The site is a special place. While there was not a planning authority at the time the builders chose an incredible site. You must go there alone or with others that will relax and engage in a place and an environment that words will not describe.
As we walk out the boreen going into the passage tombs which were more than burial chambers and certainly sites for worship, rituals and studying the sky we pass through farmland and into the townlands of Inchnagcloch which translates stone island of which there are a couple in the Lingaun River. We enter one of the very few Irish mines or quarries especially dating from the 1800s on an industrial scale and for many centuries before that using pick and shovel.
The slate from this quarry known as the Ormonde and its sister quarry Victoria upstream was used on churches, palaces and even the House of Commons. The spoil tips and the large craters are still evident encased in a beautiful steep sided valley with the Lingaun River flowing mostly peacefully and defining the border between Kilkenny and Tipperary. Upwards of 300 miners worked here for much of the 1800s with numbers tailing off after the foundation of the free state of Ireland.