Site: Toureen

Name:Toureen (Tuairín Phéacáin) [Also: Kilpeacan] CISP No:TOURP
Place:Toureen (Tuairín Phéacáin) Grid Ref:S 4 284 (IR)   Map
Parish:Clanwilliam Stones:45
County:Tipperary (Tiobraid Árann) , Ireland Saint(s):Beccán
Site Type:ecclesiastical

Site Notes

Moloney/1964, 99: `Four miles north-west of Cahir, in fields flanking a wide clear stream in Toureen townland, a little oratory, thirty-five feet by twenty five, a pleasant well, two cross-shafts and various mounds mark the hermitage of Beccan'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 327--328: `In the medieval period the site was known as Cluain Aird (or Árd) Mo-Becóc or simply as Cluain Aird (or Árd) ... According to Cogadh gaedhel re gallaibh, Cluain Aird was sacked by Norsemen in the early decades of the ninth century, along with Lismore and nearby Kilmolash ... This is probably the same event as the attack on Lismore and Kilmolash mentioned in the Annals of Innisfallen s.a. 833 ... That Toureen Peacaun was a worthy target may be taken as a reflection of its wealth and importance at this period. The site is about five miles north-west of Cahir at the eastern end of the Glen of Aherlow. It is spread over fields on either side of a stream, also called Peakaun, which joins the river Aherlow to the north of the site. The Galtee mountains rise sharply above it immediately to the south. The site is delimited by a large bank-and-ditch enclosure up to 200 m in diameter ... Near the western bank of the stream is the church which Duignan claimed had a trabeated, that is lintelled, west door ... a feature indicative of early medieval date. ... There is a free-standing cross to the west of the church an the remains of the inscribed East Cross stand in the middle of a dry-stone platform to the south-east of it. Duignan's excavation produced evidence of industrial activity, in the form of iron slag, in the area beyond the West Cross. In the field to the east of the stream is a well, and 70 m north-east of that is a triple bullaun stone surrounded by a small protective wall'.

References

Stones